
Class. 
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CajSHUGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE AWAKENING 
OF ASIA 



BY 

H. M. HYNDMAN 

AUTHOR OF "the BANKRUPTCY OF INDIA," "CLEMENCEAU: THE MAK 
AND HIS TIME," ETC. 




BONI AND LIVERIGHT 

NewYork 1919 



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■p^^ 



COPYEIGHT, 19 19, 

By Boni & LiVERiGHT, Inc. 



All rights reserved 
including the Scandinavian 



ShP 27 1919 



Printed in the U. 5. A. 



©^^'•453097^ 



TO MY WIFE 
ROSALIND TRAVERS 



PREFACE 

This book has been held up by the Censor for more than 
two years. From my own standpoint, this has turned out 
to be an advantage, so far as its prospect of usefulness 
goes. Now, more than ever before, Europeans and Ameri- 
cans are prepared to consider the relations of the white 
races to Asiatics as demanding very careful study. That 
Japan should be fully represented at the Peace Conference, 
as one of the Great Powers of the world, and that China 
and India, with their joint population of some 700,000,000 
people, should claim the right to make themselves heard at 
the same gathering of the nations, are events which cannot 
be overlooked. Asia, indeed, seems destined to play a still 
greater part in the future than she has played in the past. 
It is important, therefore, for the English-speaking peoples, 
to whom I primarily address myself, that they should recog- 
nise this at once. Self-determination and justice for all 
races cannot be confined to Europe or America. 

When first I began my serious studies of the influence 
of the white man on the Far East, I was of the opinion that 
this influence had been almost wholly beneficial. The fact 
that close relations of my own had been connected with 
Eastern affairs for several generations naturally strength- 
ened me in this view. It was only by degrees that I was 
forced to the conviction that European interference, Euro^ 
pean trade interests, European religious propaganda, Euro- 
pean administration and European domination had been 
almost wholly harmful. Such reforms, that is to say, as 
we had introduced in the early days of our intercourse with 
the great civilised peoples of Asia counted for little or 

vii 



vm 



Preface 



nothing in comparison with the mischief we have wrought. 
This is still a most unpopular idea of what the white 
man has achieved in the vast continent from which, in days 
gone by, Europe has learnt so much. 

H. M. Hyndman. 
13, Well Walk, 
Hampstead, 

London, N. W. 3. 
February, ipip. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

1. Asia and Europe in the Past i 

2. The Portuguese Pioneers 17 

3. China in the Past 23 

4. Christianity in the Far East 30 

5. Opium in China 43 

6. The Boxer Rising and the Reforming Emperor . 57 

7. The Boxer Rising and Its Consequences ... 72 

8. The Development of China for the Chinese , 106 

9. The Growth of Japan 117 

10. Japan Tries Her Strength . . . . ^ . . 133 

11. The Mistress of Asia 153 

12. Industrial Japan 159 

13. Asiatic Emigration 174 

14. The British in India 193 

15. The Unsoundness of British Indian Finance . 214 

16. The Growing Unrest 230 

Conclusion , 265 

Index 275 



THE AWAKENING OF ASIA 

CHAPTER I 

ASIA AND EUROPE IN THE PAST 

The purely arbitrary border-line, which is supposed to 
separate the continent of Europe from the continent of 
Asia, at times leads to the misapprehension that there is 
really such a break in territorial continuity. There is, of 
course, no recognised division between the two continents, 
either in the matter of geography or of race. The vast land 
areas distinguished by the names of Europe and Asia blend 
imperceptibly into one another: it is practically impossible 
to say where the one ends and the other begins. 

Similarly with the numerous and widely-differing in- 
habitants. The dominant races of Europe are nearly all of 
Asiatic descent, deriving their blood from more or less 
recent waves of invasion and colonisation from the East. 
The Aryans of Great Britain and the Aryans of India, for 
example, much as they differ to-day, came originally from 
the same stock. This is but one instance of remote Asiatic 
origin. Europe, in fact, is a great conterminous Colony 
of Asia, which, in the course of thousands of years, has set 
up for itself. If Europe were deprived of all her peoples 
of ancient Asiatic origin, by some inconceivable process of 
unnatural selection, the greater part of Western civilisation 
would disappear. 

We are indebted, however, for far more than our racial 
descent to our Eastern progenitors of the remote past. 



2 The Awakening of Asia 

Leave their descendants where they are to-day, but with- 
draw from them the basic discoveries and inventions which 
we owe to Asia, and the entire fabric of our existing social 
arrangements would collapse. Cotton, silk, porcelain, the 
mariner's compass, gunpowder, algebra, geometry and as- 
tronomy, as well as much of our architecture and agricult- 
ure, with many of our fruits and flowers, came first into 
our daily lives from that continent. Every one of the great 
religions of the world, to say nothing of its philosophy, was 
vouchsafed to humanity from east of the Mediterranean 
Sea. Our own Asiatic religion, Christianity, is overlaid 
with so much of Greek metaphysic and Pagan ceremonial 
that the unlearned are apt to think of it as a purely Euro- 
pean creed. Our most ardent and self-sacrificing mission- 
aries of Christianity are often so little versed in the history 
of their own faith that they altogether fail to accommodate 
its tenets to the conceptions of the Asiatic peoples whom 
they strive to convert. The great efforts made from Eu- 
rope to persuade Asiatics to embrace the creed accepted and 
adopted by the West have generally proved abortive, be- 
cause the methods used to propagate this religion are en- 
tirely unsuited to the social conditions of the people among 
whom it has been preached. 

For in spite of the lack of definite frontier, or clear ra- 
cial distinctions, it is certain that the long severance of the 
two continents in thought, custom and social arrangements 
has so ordered matters that Asia has perhaps never been 
deeply affected by Europe in thought, custom or religion for 
any considerable length of time. 

We are inclined nowadays to take more account of the 
European invasion of Asia than of the Asian invasion of 
Europe. Yet the influence of the East upon the West and 
the far less powerful influence of the West upon the East 
have been going on for many, many centuries. The suc- 
cessive waves of invasion and counter-invasion from Eu- 



Asia and Europe in the Past 3 

rope to Asia and from Asia to Europe are not easy to record 
accurately and intelligibly. Some of the Asiatic attacks 
upon Europe were no better than mere temporary raids 
giving no permanent results, and the same may be said of 
the greater portion of the European advances upon Asia. 
At some periods both attacks were going on simultaneously, 
and the direct military influence oi Asia upon Europe has 
been much more recent and more powerful than we gener- 
ally recognise. Even in the Great War, while tens of thou- 
sands of Asiatic Turks were fighting on the side of Ger- 
many, Japan threw in her lot with the Allies and has been 
fighting on their side against Germans in the East, while 
large forces from India have been engaged with the enemy 
in the West. But, in any survey of the mutual aggressions 
from the one side or other, there is nothing in the European 
attempts upon Asia, until the period from the sixteenth to the 
nineteenth century, which can be compared for vigour, con- 
tinuity and effect to the pressure exerted for a far longer 
period by Asiatics upon Europe. 

I. Taking the European advances into Asia first, and 
dealing with them only, in order of date, there have been 
within historic times four great European invasions of 
Asia. The first was the wonderful campaign of Alexander 
of Macedon and his Greek armies. His forces marched 
unbeaten to the Indus and defeated Porus on the borders 
of Hindustan. As a military feat the whole expedition was 
a marvellous success. But, great as were his victories in 
the field and far-reaching his projects for founding an 
Eastern Empire, the fact remains that Alexander's exploits 
and those of his lieutenants produced no permanent effect 
whatever upon the important countries over which they and 
their immediate descendants ruled. There is nothing to 
show, either in arms or in arts, in philosophy or in re- 
ligion, that the Asiatics, who were compelled to submit for 
the time being, adopted Greek methods or absorbed Greek 



4 The Awakening of Asia 

ideas. It was conquest without colonisation : victory with- 
out continuous influence. The wave of invasion receded 
and matters went on below the surface much as they did 
before. 

2. Even the Roman mastery of a large portion of Asia 
scarcely influenced Eastern thought or Eastern customs at 
all. Yet this second great European invasion lasted for 
many centuries, and was maintained, alike when Rome was 
at the height of her power, and when her magnificent sys- 
tem of civil and military organisation was slowly tottering 
to its fall. Those long, long years of peaceful and success- 
ful rule failed to impress European conceptions, or Euro- 
pean methods, upon the m^ass of the subject population, or 
even upon the educated classes as a whole. They remained 
essentially Asiatic, in all important respects, below the sur- 
face. The Pax Romana passed away and the Asiatics of 
centuries before became Asiatics again for centuries after. 
This was so, first and foremost and all through, from the 
days when the Parthians on the frontier routed Crassus 
and his army, to the period when the Byzantine Emperors 
were vainly struggling against the Arabs and the Turks. 

The East bowed low before the blast 

In patient deep disdain ; 
She heard the legions thunder past. 

Then plunged in thought again. 

The great legacy of administration, laws and juris- 
prudence which Rome bequeathed to Europe proved of little 
virtue or permanence in Asia. The splendid roads, har- 
bours, water-conduits and other public works, .of which the 
ruins still bear witness to the genius and foresight of her 
Emperors and engineers, conduced to great material pros- 
perity, as the wealth and luxury of the principal cities testi- 
fied. But the whole elaborate system left the psychology, 



Asia and Europe in the Past 5 

habits and beliefs of the people untouched. The Asiatic 
mind remained impervious to European thought. Asiatic 
customs, Asiatic tribal and family relations, Asiatic re- 
ligions long survived Greek and Latin teaching and Greek 
and Latin cults. Nay, in all these departments of human 
activity, as in some others, Asia, even under Roman su- 
premacy, had a continuous and peaceful influence upon her 
conquerors, at a period when all hope of shaking off the 
Roman yoke had been practically abandoned. In Rome 
itself and in other great cities of the Western Empire, 
Asiatic philosophy and Asiatic superstitions made way long 
before the Asiatic religion of Christianity spread its net- 
work from Palestine over the European provinces. At Con- 
stantinople imitations of Asiatic forms and ceremonies per- 
vaded the whole Imperial Court. 

3. Where the powerful organisation and efficiency of 
the Roman Empire had failed after hundreds of years of 
successful domination to produce a permanent effect, it was 
little likely that other disorderly and spasmodic efforts from 
the West would prevail. There seems, indeed, in spite of 
the continuity of territory and ancient community of race 
already referred to, an inscrutable difference between the 
whole conception of life and thought, customs and ideals 
which pervade Asia and that which is rooted in Europe. 
Except in rare instances of remarkable men, gifted with the 
highest powers of sympathy and imagination, it is doubtful 
whether the inhabitants of the two continents have ever 
understood one another. 

The motley hosts who went forth under the banners of 
the Crusaders formed the third important invasion of Asia 
by Europe. Whatever may have been the hopes and in- 
tentions of the more capable statesmen and warriors of Eu- 
rope we can now see that they were doomed to disappoint- 
ment, even if the attacks upon "the infidel" had been far 
better organised and disciplined than in fact they were. At 



6 The Awakening of Asia 

first, at any rate, the Crusades were nothing more than 
spasmodic religious raids, bred of hysteria and inspired by 
fanaticism. Later they may have had some conscious, or 
unconscious, economic motive; and unquestionably racial 
antagonism developed as a result of the long series of en- 
counters with the Moslem armies. These freebooters of 
Christianity and marauders of feudalism, however, were as 
little animated by any great scheme of polity as were their 
opponents. Here and there the leaders carved out short- 
lived kingdoms for themselves and their followers, chiefly 
at the expense of the decadent Christian Empire of the 
East, whose outposts in Asia Minor and Palestine they went 
forth to defend. 

But the Crusades, taken together, were no more than 
a fierce religious and warlike offensive against Mahound, 
with the hope of happiness hereafter and loot here, in the 
long-drawn defensive struggle against the steadily-advanc- 
ing flood of Asiatic aggression. They made no lasting im- 
pression whatever upon "the East." The Holy City of 
Christianity, Jerusalem, remained for centuries afterwards 
and continued till yesterday in the custody of those rival 
monotheists, the followers of Mohammed. Thus the third 
assault of Europe upon Asia produced even less effect than 
its two predecessors. 

On the other hand, the permanent influence of Asiatic 
attacks upon and settlements in Europe may still be easily 
discerned. Even in Vienna, which for many a century was 
the bulwark of the West against Asiatic incursions, people 
say to-day : "Cross the Wien and you find yourself in Asia." 
The Western limit of certain flora of the Asiatic steppes 
is drawn at a little hill on the outskirts of the Austrian 
capital. 

4. The fourth European invasion of Asia has taken 
place in modern times. It is a much wider, more continu- 
ous and far more formidable assault than any of its predeces- 



Asia and Europe in the Past 7 

sors. This great movement is still in progress, and we are 
by no means as yet in a position to judge of its final effect. 
French, English and Russians, following upon the early 
religious and commercial efforts of the Portuguese and 
Dutch, have carried on for three centuries a steady pressure 
of, first, religious propaganda, then mercantile persuasion, 
and lastly armed conquest at the expense of the inhabitants. 
The result is that Europeans have now seized and domi- 
nate more than half of the area and little less than half of 
the population of the great Eastern Continent, with its ad- 
jacent islands. I shall try later on to estimate the real sig- 
nificance and possible consequences of this the last great 
counter-stroke against the Asiatics. The fact that the 
country we speak of as Russia in Europe, which suffered 
most in old times from the inroads of barbarous hordes 
from Central Asia, to-day holds sway over the territories 
whence these tribes swept in succession to the West on 
their missions of massacre, is a strange instance of historic 
revenge for the horrors of the past. 

Let us now turn back to the successive Asiatic inva- 
sions of Europe, so far as they are known to history. By 
the great inroads of the Huns in the fourth and fifth cen- 
turies Asia first penetrated in organised force into Central 
and Southern Europe. There were no armies then, avail- 
able capable of resisting their advance. From the first, 
these barbarians, in spite of their love for destruction and 
rapine, showed a disposition to settle in the territories they 
conquered. Attila himself established permanent camps in 
more than one country, and the Magyars of Hungary to- 
day owe their descent for the most part to the savage tribes 
who terrorised the decadent Roman Empire from Con- 
stantinople to Rome. These Asiatic Colonies, carved out 
of Roman Europe in its process of disintegration, tempted 
other Finno-Tatar tribes to follow their example. Suc- 
cessive waves of Avars, of the same great stock as the 



8 The Awakening of Asia 

Huns, came over in the sixth century and grew formidable 
not only to the Romans but to the Goths, who had been 
engaged in appropriating their share of the Empire, now 
fair booty for courageous invaders. But the Avars, after 
their complete defeat by another combination of Asiatic 
tribes, disappeared as a separate horde and were probably 
absorbed into the armies of their conquerors. They left 
no permanent mark on the map of Europe, though at one 
period they dominated, under their own name, the whole 
great district from the Don to the middle Danube, com- 
ing into contact with the armies of Charlemagne on their 
frontier. 

From the fourth to the end of the seventh century 
Asiatic invasions went on almost without cessation, and it 
is matter of wonder that the Byzantine Empire, with all 
its dexterity, and fitful military prowess under great gen- 
erals, was able to survive these attacks. At the end of the 
seventh century the ancestors of the present Bulgars, who 
formed part of one of the raids, settled in the region now 
occupied by their descendants. About the same time Finn- 
Ugrian tribes overran North-Western Russia and settled in 
Finland, perhaps dispossessing a Caucasian race. Thus, by 
the beginning of the ninth century, three Mongolian races, 
the Finns, the Huns and the Bulgars, nimierically unim- 
portant, but ethnologically valuable, had taken firm root in 
Europe. 

But by far the most dangerous and continuous Asian 
assault upon European countries and their independence 
came with the rise of Mohammedanism. After three hun- 
dred years of almost perpetual suffering at the hands of 
uncivilised tribes, whose numbers appeared incalculable, 
the Byzantine Empire might have anticipated an ebb in the 
tide of Asiatic aggression, when the invaders from Persia 
were driven back. This was not to be. The success of the 
warlike creed of the great Arabian prophet led to another 



Asia and Europe in the Past 9 

series of conquests and colonisations, which more than once 
threatened to subdue, or depopulate, the entire West. Yet 
Europe was now settling down to the establishment of a 
new system, and the organised armies which it developed 
were formidable enough to have made head against Mos- 
lem attack, had there been any community of aim among 
the European populations. As it was, the danger of over- 
whelming Asiatic success became very great. Time after 
time Christian chivalry of the finest quality, supported by 
men of courage and vigour fighting for their homes, were 
routed by monotheistic sons of the desert, or ruthless sav- 
ages from the great steppes, who brought into the field a 
still fiercer fanaticism than that of the Catholics. 

Even to-day, with all the details of his early life and 
subsequent career laid bare by men of our own race, who 
have studied the whole extraordinary story of the noble 
Arabian, it is no easy matter to comprehend the character, 
or to account for the marvellous success of Mohammed in 
the early part of the seventh century. Never claiming di- 
vine powers at any period of his mission, without a single 
miracle to his name, this very human prophet of God made 
his first converts in his own family, was able, after almost 
hopeless failure, to obtain control in his own aristocratic 
gens, and had such remarkable personal influence over all 
with whom he was brought into contact that, neither when 
a poverty-stricken and hunted fugitive, nor at the height 
of his prosperity, did he ever have to complain of treach- 
ery from those who had once embraced his faith. His 
confidence in himself, and in his inspiration from on high, 
was even greater when he was suffering under disappoint- 
ment and defeat than when he was able to dictate his own 
terms to his conquered enemies. Mohammed died as he 
had lived, surrounded by his early followers, friends and 
votaries : his death as devoid of mystery as his life of dis- 
guise. 



10 The Awakening of Asia 

What followed upon his decease was in a sense as 
miraculous as the original triumph of his creed among his 
own kith and kin. For centuries before the coming of Mo- 
hammed, the Prophet of Allah, the Arabs had been the 
poor, proud, cruel, hard-living and hard-fighting men of 
the desert and its oases that they are to-day. If economic 
causes and desire for material domination had been their 
main incentives to war and conquest there was as much 
reason for their outbreak, and apparently many better 
chances of their success, before than after the advent 
of Mohammed. 

Unlike their successors, the Mongols and Turks, who 
butchered their defeated enemies wholesale, the early fol- 
lowers of Mohammed spared the lives of all who accepted 
the new faith- — a much more reasonable policy. Even now 
it is very difficult to explain how the Arabs achieved their 
remarkable conquests. At the time of Mohammed's rise to 
fame and power they numbered, all told, barely 3,000,000 
families. Thus they comprised no more than 15,000,000 
persons, including women and children, and taking account 
of the entire population of the trading cities and seaports 
on the coast, as well as of the inhabitants of the fruitful 
oases. The population of the countries they invaded was 
not only far greater than this, but, in the first instance, much 
better organised for resistance than the Arabs were for 
attack. Yet they rose so far above their historic record in 
border warfare that they were able to defeat in fair fight 
the armies of Constantinople, which a few years before, 
under the command of the Emperor Heraclius himself, 
had utterly routed the Persians. Whatever may have been 
the actual causes of the Arab success, the results were amaz- 
ing. The Caliphs who succeeded Mohammed were so well 
served by their generals and their troops, in spite of all 
internecine differences, that, within a century of the Hegira 
in A.D. 622, Europe was successfully attacked by the Arabs 



Asia and Europe in the Past ii 

from tfie West as well as from the East. It was indeed a 
marvellous procession of victory. 

Beginning with the conquest of Asia Minor and pro- 
ceeding almost without a check to Egypt, which the Mo- 
hammedans have held and controlled till the present century, 
the victorious Arabs swept along the African shores of the 
Mediterranean, and mastered them so completely that they 
used them as a base to attack Spain; and Spain was not 
only conquered but colonised even more thoroughly than 
their other territories. In southern Spain, indeed, the Sara- 
cens proved that they had learned much from their defeated 
enemies, by introducing arts, science and medicine, which 
had fallen into disuse and even into contempt in Western 
Europe. The immediate descendants of the very same 
rough, ignorant soldiers, who had inflicted an irreparable 
loss upon humanity by burning what r^^mained of the great 
library of Alexandria, were so changed in character that as 
the Moors of Spain they became celebrated alike for their 
civilisation and their learning. They were superior in every 
respect to the Europeans around them, and their capital, 
Cordoba, was long the most enlightened, best governed and 
most tolerant city in Europe. The ruins of their splendid 
architecture, decoration and irrigation works are the ad- 
miration of the West to-day. 

The advance of the Saracens into France also was no 
chance raid. It was another deliberate attempt to con- 
quer and dominate beyond the Pyrenees. But for a local 
rising of the subdued tribes in Africa, it is more than pos- 
sible that the battle of Tours might have failed to head 
back the advance of the Asiatic armies. Even as it was, 
the victory of Charles Martel over the Emir Abdorrahman 
seemed by no means conclusive at the time ; since the Sara- 
cen armies pushed still farther forward into France in the 
following year. Nevertheless, the date of a.d. 722, the 
centenary of the flight of Mohammed from Mecca, may be 



12 The Awakening of Asia 

taken as the time when the Arab conquerors had exhausted 
the full vigour of their attack on that side. But, within 
their own borders in Spain, the Asiatic invaders remained 
for generations a capable and cultured folk, who preserved 
for Europe in their writings not a little Greek knowledge 
and culture. 

From A.D. 722 onwards for a thousand years Asia was 
steadily pressing upon Europe. With short intervals of re- 
pose, these invasions constitute one long record of rapine 
and slaughter, Tartars, Mongols, Turks spread death and 
desolation all round them for century after century. Rus- 
sia, the Balkan Provinces, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Italy, 
Sicily, even the south of Ireland, all suffered from their 
incursions by land and by sea. The terror of them spread 
from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, and even countries 
far remote from their ravages felt unsafe from their at- 
tacks. Some of the devastated areas were occupied and 
colonised : more were again and again subjected to murder, 
rapine and desolation out of sheer love of bloodshed and 
horror. Robbery and greed of gain seem to have been sec- 
ondary impulses. In the majority of cases even religious 
fervour played little part. The successive inroads were car- 
ried out by savage hordes, nominally Mohammedans, who 
treated the great Empires of India and China with the same 
ferocious barbarity that they inflicted upon Eastern Eu- 
rope, and were really inspired by no' creed more elevated 
than that of the North-American Indians. 

The total numbers of these victorious assailants seem 
to have been small in comparison with the campaigns they 
undertook and the populations they crushed. As the wound- 
ed of their armies had little chance of recovery, owing to 
lack of medical aid, their constant victories seem the more 
surprising. So revolting is the whole long story of such 
human beasts of prey that we are apt to overlook the as- 



Asia and Europe in the Past 13 

tonishing prowess they displayed in their long career of 
destruction. 

Yet a careful survey of events may show that in Batu 
(a.d. 1235) the Mongols produced a general who was quite 
equal to Alexander, Hannibal, Marlborough or Napoleon, 
alike in the scope of his enterprises, the difficulties he sur- 
mounted and the success he achieved. The son of one of 
Genghis Khan's captains, he was sent out to conquer every- 
thing within the reach of his arms by that stupendous 
marauder's immediate successor. And he did it in the 
course of a few short years. Nothing arrested his con- 
quering career. He swept right away from Central Asia to 
the very heart of Germany, with an army which, though 
large for those days, was certainly insufficient to account 
for the victories he won over a succession of brave ene- 
mies, who knew that defeat meant for them torture and 
death. He and his men made light of distance, and paid 
no attention either to climate or seasons of the year. There 
were no winter quarters for them. Natural obstacles, which, 
both before and since, have arrested the operations of great 
armies, equipped with all the appliances of modern science, 
were speedily overcome by this extraordinary commander. 
He made no more account of the descendants of the Scourge 
of God, who had long settled in Hungary, than he did of 
the Teutonic Knights who came to their rescue. Wholesale 
butchery befell them both. 

Tradition recounts that Batu used cannon and gun- 
powder, and that he had highly-skilled Chinese engineers 
in his train, during this series of campaigns. Whether 
that was so or not, it is indisputable that he and his 
forces were so uniformly successful, and won victories on 
such a vast scale against opponents who might claim su- 
perior training, education and discipline, that the Tartars 
seemed more formidable foes of the growing European 
civilisation than were the Arabs five hundred years before, 



14 The Awakening of Asia 

or the Turks at the same time and two and three hundred 
years later. Batu and his invincible Mongols constituted, 
in fact, only one important incident in that long succession 
of ferocious Tartar assaults which threw back the develop- 
ment of Eastern Europe for generations, if not for cen- 
turies. Batu's wonderful strategy and tactics have not 
received as much attention from historians or students of 
military affairs as might have been expected. This is prob- 
ably because he was an Asiatic barbarian, and played no 
obvious part in Western European affairs. Unlike his re- 
mote kinsmen, Kublai Khan in China and Baber in India, 
he did not combine statesmanship with military powers of 
the first order, and bequeathed no organised empire to his 
descendants. Batu indeed was not nearly so successful 
in this respect as the Saracens of Spain, or the Turks of 
Adrianople and Constantinople. Yet that an Asiatic com- 
mander, not possessed of overwhelming numbers, should 
have carried all before him in Eastern Europe during the 
thirteenth century is worth consideration in this twentieth 
century, when, within twenty years, another Asiatic power, 
of much the same race and of very recent growth, defeated 
one of the great military Empires of the West. 

For many generations after Batu and his Mongols were 
gathered to their fathers and fellow-butchers, the Tartar 
tribes who succeeded them carried on the like depredations. 
In 1382 the cities of the Ukraine and Northern Russia were 
sacked and burned by them one after the other. In 1389 
another rush forward occurred under the great Timour the 
Tartar. In 1558 again Moscow, Kiev and other towns 
were given over to fire and sword, while every sort of 
cruelty and horror was inflicted upon their ruined in- 
habitants. The invaders still seemed to have no idea of 
using the subjugated population to produce wealth for 
themselves. Massacre and torture for the sake of massa- 
cre and torture seemed sufficient incentive for them. And 



Asia and Europe in the Past 15 

these oncoming tidal waves of human conquest and desola- 
tion had all the appearance of irresistible natural phenomena. 
If the marauders lacked great captains in the later raids, 
smaller leaders readily filled their place, and the hordes 
themselves made up by their persistence and daring for their 
lack of ability. Even so late as 1650, a great Tartar irrup- 
tion laid waste Eastern Europe. If the remembrance of 
such events, which went far to destroy an entire civilisa- 
tion among the Ruthenians and Little Russians, has faded 
in the West, which suffered only from the Tartar terror at 
a distance, this is not so in Eastern Europe, where the con- 
stant presence of the Turks to the South has served to re- 
mind the inhabitants of what their forefathers underwent 
at the hands of still more ferocious enemies than these. 

The success of the Turks, though much slower, was 
far more enduring in its results than ihat of their cousins 
the Tartars and Mongols in the North. Though their first 
serious European campaign only began in 1341, they were 
soon firmly settled at Adrianople, and "the crowning mercy" 
of Kossovo for the Moslem, which the descendants of the 
unfortunate Serbs were of late sadly recalling, was fought 
in 1389. Then the Slavs were remorselessly crushed, and 
remained for centuries under Turkish rule, while their coun- 
try was subject to Turkish colonisation. We English may 
talk of the high qualities which the Turks as soldiers un- 
questionably possess, but we have never undergone their 
rule. Turks and goats together, say Eastern Europeans, 
will reduce the richest country to ruin. However this 
may be, their domination of Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine 
and Egypt helped to divert the route of European com- 
merce, as their conquest of the African littoral threat- 
ened to give them permanent control of the Mediterranean. 

After the capture of Constantinople in 1453 Asiatics 
in Europe became for centuries a dreaded factor in Euro- 
pean politics. With the Turk in Sicily and a conquering 



i6 The Awakening of Asia 

army within a few days' march of Rome, while Greece was 
completely overwhelmed and Austria and Hungary suc- 
cessfully invaded, the liberties of the West seemed once 
more imperilled by Asiatic greed and ferocity. Yet even the 
near approach of danger and ruin failed to convince Euro- 
pean States of the necessity for combination against their 
common enemy. 

Though the battle of Lepanto in 1571 is generally 
spoken of as marking the decay of the Turkish power, it 
was more than a century later when the Poles, under John 
Sobieski, coming to rescue the Austrian armies, defeated 
the Turks in their second siege of Vienna, and put a limit 
to their career of conquest on land. This was in 1681, 
barely eight generations ago. The peace of Karlovitz, in 
1700, marks the end of the Turkish offensive in Europe. 

Not until 1830 was the den of Turkish pirates at Al- 
giers destroyed by Lord Exmouth. Twenty-four years 
later still, England and France, both of whom had pre- 
viously entered into very close relations with the Ottoman 
Porte, were in direct alliance with her against Christian 
Russia, thus bringing the Turks to the European Council 
table. 

These latter events are, however, only incidents in wars 
which Europe originated and carried on. In giving a sum- 
mary of the attacks on Europe by purely Asiatic forces, 
I wish to remind those who may consider the renewal of 
such assaults impossible, under modern conditions, what a 
very serious part Asia played for many centuries in Euro- 
pean affairs. 



CHAPTER II 

THE PORTUGUESE PIONEERS 

At the very same period when Tartars and Turks were 
thus achieving the conquest and domination of a large part 
of Europe, the European nations them.selves were begin- 
ning to force their commerce and their religion on the peo- 
ples of the Far East. Since the success of the later waves 
of Mongolian invasion in Asia Minor the old trade routes 
to India and China had been blocked to European merchants. 
It has been ingeniously suggested that the monopoly of such 
commerce, which consequently fell into the hands of the 
Mohammedan invaders, partly furnished the means whereby 
their armies were financed in their attacks upon Europe. 
That the interchange of goods between East and West was 
very largely conducted for centuries by Arabs and other 
Mohammedan peoples is undoubted. The discovery by 
Bartholomew Diaz of the new route round the Cape of 
Good Hope threatened from the first to deprive the Mos- 
lem commimities, from the Persian Gulf to the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, of the great commercial advantages they had 
previously enjoyed. 

This was at once recognised by the Portuguese dis- 
coverers themselves, who rejoiced at the double blow they 
might thus strike at the Moors, the terror of whose arms 
was quite a recent memory in Portugal as well as in Spain. 
Christian fanaticism and commercial greed for gain went 
hand in hand on their Eastern expeditions. These Portu- 
guese adventurers were the pioneers of European trade and 
settlement in India. Their early methods of dealing with 

17 



1 8 The Awakening of Asia 

peoples more civilised and more moral than themselves 
formed a pattern upon which their successors in the same 
field too often modelled their conduct. One of their first 
points of attack was the city of Calicut, on the Malabar 
Coast of India. 

The following accounts of this place, before and after 
the arrival of the Portuguese, give some idea of the Asiatic 
society which these bigoted barbarians of Europe regarded 
simply as a fine opportunity for proselytism and plunder. 
The first description is by a Shiah Mohammedan, the other 
by a Catholic European : 

"The town is inhabited by infidels [Hindoos] and situ- 
ated on a hostile shore. It contains a number of Moham- 
medans who are constant residents, who have built two 
mosques and meet every Friday to offer up prayer. . . . 
Security and justice are so firmly established in this city that 
the most wealthy merchants bring thither from maritime 
countries considerable cargoes, which they unload and un- 
hesitatingly send to the markets and bazaars, without think- 
ing in the meantime of checking the accounts or keeping 
watch over the goods. The officers of the custom-house 
take upon themselves the charge of looking after the mer- 
chandise, over which they keep watch night and day. When 
a sale is effected they make on them a charge of one-forti- 
eth part; if they are not sold they make no charge on them 
whatsoever. ... In Calicut every ship, whatever place 
it may come from, or wheresoever it may be bound, when 
it puts into this port is treated like other vessels, and has 
no trouble of any kind to put up with." 

Yet this traveller was not favourable to Calicut, and 
was shown no courtesy by its chief, the Samuri, who was 
ruler of the whole district. 

The European says: "There is no place in all India 
where contentment is more universal than at Calicut, both 
on account of the fertility and beauty of the country and 



The Portuguese Pioneers 19 

of intercourse with men of all religions who live there in 
the free exercise of their own religion. ... It is the busiest 
and most full of all traffic and commerce in the whole of 
India; it has merchants from all parts of the world and of 
all nations and religions, by reason of the liberty and se- 
curity accorded to them there; for the King permits the 
exercise of every kind of religion. . . . Justice is well ad- 
ministered and awarded to all gratuitously." 

An Italian traveller bears similar testimony tO' the 
condition of the place in 1505, the Mohammedan having 
been there sixty-three years before. So that the admir- 
able administration of this portion of the country was con- 
tinuous. 

The Portuguese, who were quite ignorant of the lan- 
guage, religion, habits and customs of the people with whom 
they came to trade, burst in upon the civilised folk in- 
habiting the Malabar Coast like a set of Barbary pirates or 
Tartar marauders. They were guilty from the outset of the 
most hideous and wanton cruelty. Vasco da Gama in par- 
ticular resorted to tortures, butcheries and atrocities on 
peaceful noncombatants worthy of the Germans in the late 
war. Special outrages were committed at the same port of 
Calicut, because the Samuri refused to turn all Moham- 
medans out of his territory. In 1502, the infamous Pope 
Alexander VI. (Borgia), who had pubHshed a Bull accord- 
ing the East and West Indies to Spain and Portugal, con- 
firmed the claim of King Emanuel to the title of "Lord of 
the conquest, navigation and commerce of India, Ethiopia, 
Arabia and Persia." 

It was under this Christian rescript that the Portuguese 
acted. And they carried out their programme with the ut- 
most religious and commercial zeal. By their activity and 
predatory genius, the two ablest governors or viceroys 
of the Portuguese King, Almeida and Albuquerque, seized 
and made a fine capital of Goa. But they and their sue- 



20 The Awakening of Asia 

cessors were worthy followers of da Gama in cold-blooded 
cruelty and rapine. Eyes torn out, women's noses cut off, 
harmless fishermen hanged wholesale, such were the charms 
of civilisation which Europe transmitted to Asia by Al- 
buquerque the Great and other Portuguese leaders. Re- 
ligion only added theological ferocity to the fury of the 
mercantile instinct. Hindus and Mohammedans alike found 
no respect for their souls nor any mercy for their bodies, 
if they ran counter to the ideas of the bigoted priests who 
only desired for them eternal salvation. Piracy became the 
rule on the sea, religious persecution the law of the colony, 
robbery and bribery the recognised concomitants of ad- 
ministration all round. Things went from bad to worse. 
Albuquerque was a poisoner of the Samuri : the priests 
were the poisoners of prisoners. 

St. Francis Xavier landed in India on his great mission 
to the heathen of the Eastern world in 1542. He was on 
friendly terms with some of the Portuguese leaders and 
closely connected with them. Writing to a Jesuit friend 
in 1545, he strongly adjured him on no account to allow 
any of his friends to be sent to India to look after the 
finances and affairs of the king. However honest and 
trustworthy they might be, the whole atmosphere of the 
Portuguese settlements was such that they would be ex- 
posed to the most terrible moral dangers : "There is a pow- 
er here, which I may call irresistible, to thrust men head- 
long into the abyss, where besides the seductions of gain 
and the easy opportunities of plunder, their appetites for 
greed will be sharpened by having tasted it, and there will 
be a whole torrent of low examples and evil customs to 
overwhelm them and sweep them away. RoJ^bery is so 
public and so common that it hurts no one's character, and 
is hardly counted a fault; people scarcely hesitate to think 
that what is done with impunity it cannot be bad to do. 
Everywhere, and at all times, it is rapine, hoarding and 



The Portuguese Pioneers 21 

robbery. No one thinks of making restitution of what he 
has once taken. The devices by which men plunder, the va- 
rious pretexts under which it is done, who can count? I 
never cease wondering at the number of new inflections 
which, in addition to all the usual forms, have been added 
in this lingo of avarice to the conjugation of that ill- 
omened verb 'to rob.' " From all which it might appear 
that Xavier himself would have done better to direct his 
missionary enterprise to the conversion of Europeans, rather 
than go further afield to spread his own creed among 
Asiatics whose morality and general conduct were infinitely 
higher than theirs. 

As the Portuguese Empire began, so it went on. Here 
and there an upright as well as an able man, such as 
Botelho, became Governor, and did what he could to 
remedy an almost unendurable state of things. But, like 
Albuquerque in his great enterprises, Botelho was not sup- 
ported from home in his endeavours to establish common 
honesty and decent behaviour among Portuguese officials 
and merchants. On the contrary, he was thwarted in every 
possible way by the king and his Court, and returned to die 
in poverty. It is possible that had Portugal remained in- 
dependent of Spain a better system might have been in- 
troduced, and, with this reorganisation, some permanence 
secured for the scattered Portuguese "Empire." As it was, 
no such reform was made, and the Portuguese in India 
failed to extend their power inland. When the Dutch and 
English competition began in earnest they were unable 
to meet it successfully, and the whole piratical adventure 
faded into insignificance, leaving only the ruins of Goa to 
recall opportunities missed and ill-gotten wealth accumu- 
lated in the early days of Europe's modern invasion of 
Asia. 

One characteristic of these earlier inroads of Christian 
Europe upon the Far East is worth remembering at the 



22 The Awakening of Asia 

present time. In the sixteenth, seventeenth and the early- 
part of the eighteenth century there was none of that ar- 
rogant confidence in the superiority of the white race over 
all races of a different colour, which later became so marked 
a feature in the attitude of Europe towards the Eastern 
peoples. Far from it. The behaviour of European mer- 
chants and missionaries to the great and even to the smaller 
rulers of India, China and Japan was deferential, and in 
many cases even servile. These monarchs, viceroys and 
chieftains compared favourably with their own royal per- 
sonages, alike in culture, wealth, power and magnificence, 
as the most important European envoys were ready to ad- 
mit. All the travellers and adventurers of the early days 
of commerce and piracy enlarge upon the splendour of the 
countries they were making ready to exploit. Not until the 
latter half of the nineteenth century did Europeans, and 
more particularly the English, convince themselves that our 
goods, our methods, our administration, our philosophy, 
our religion, our teachers were so immeasurably superior 
to those of the benighted heathen whom it was part of 
the white man's burden to bring into the fold of Western 
civilisation. 



CHAPTER III 

CHINA IN THE PAST 

Although no accurate census has ever been taken of 
China, the generally accepted estimate is that there are 
fully 350,000,000 people in the Chinese Empire as now 
delimited. This appears to be correct, even after taking 
account of the annexations of Chinese territory by France 
in Cochin China and Tonquin, by Russia in Manchuria and 
Mongolia, and by Japan in Korea, the Liaotung Peninsula 
and Formosa. Such an enormous population has never 
before been gathered together under one rule in the history 
of the world, and its numbers are believed to be steadily in- 
creasing. Though the inhabitants of many of the Provinces 
cannot understand one another's speech, the written lan- 
guage is the same all over the Empire. As the communica- 
tions between the most populous districts are being rapidly 
improved and general education is spreading, it is quite 
probable that, within fifty years from the present date, 
there will be as little difference between the districts of 
Northern and Southern, or Eastern and Western China as 
there is between the talk of ordinary Yorkshiremen and 
that of the agricultural labourers of Devonshire and Somer- 
setshire. 

The Chinese, though devoted to their local autonomy, 
as members of this or that province, have a clear con- 
ception of the unity of their race. They have fully recog- 
nised for centuries, and even for thousands of years, that 
they all belong to the same great Empire. Their "Brother- 
hood of the Four Seas" is a very ancient formula of their 

23 



24 The Awakening of Asia 

national aspirations. Though no more than ideal to-day, 
it is still cherished almost unconsciously in the hearts and 
minds of the people. This ideal, therefore, may quite con- 
ceivably be realised, as the patriotism of common race 
and common nationality is aroused, either by pressure from 
without or by the manifest need of reorganisation on a 
large scale within. 

There are two questions which necessarily arise, as the 
history of China and the Chinese is briefly surveyed and 
brought down to our own day. How is it that this huge 
Empire, with its multitudes of vigorous, civilised, intelli- 
gent and educated men — for practically all Chinaitien can 
read, write and cast accounts — how is it that so important 
a country should have fallen so often a victim to the bar- 
barous hordes from the North and West ? China has never 
decayed as an administrative unit in the same way that the 
Roman Empire or other great Empires have decHned. The 
Chinese have remained under the same domestic rule for 
thousands of years. Through all the wars and anarchical 
revolts their system of government has gone on practically 
as it is to-day. 

The conquerors were conquerors and remained the rul- 
ers at the top, but the administrators remained adminis- 
trators century after century beneath them, as if no change 
had been made. Nothing like this has been seen in all human 
history. Even the ablest of Tartar Emperors could do no 
more than continue the methods of civil organisation which 
were there when his dynasty began and remained when 
his dynasty ended. Even the last Manchu rulers felt com- 
pelled to accept Chinese for at least three-fourths of the 
most important administrative posts throughout the Em- 
pire. They, like their predecessors, were themselves cap- 
tured by Chinese civilisation and found themselves power- 
less in the face of passive civil resistance. 

That so stubborn and well-organised a people, capable 



China in the Past 25 

under vigorous leadership of amazing efforts, should have 
failed time after time to make head against their enemies 
was due to the fact that they were too civilised for their 
epoch in every sense. So completely moralised, also, were 
they by the teachings of Confucius and his predecessors that 
they abhorred war — even in self-defence. Save on very rare 
occasions, they regarded peaceful production and distribu- 
tion for themselves and the community at large as the 
chief object in life. Everything else was secondary to this. 
The various grades of society were all superior to the 
soldier. The man who made the trade of arms his profes- 
sion was regarded by them as a Pariah; and, as a nation, 
they had no conception, during the greater part of their 
history, of the need of a public force for public defence. 
The Great Wall was built to shut out for ever all possible 
assaults, and the troops required for its defence rarely 
came in touch with the mass of the population. Thus the 
soldier held no place in this calm, easy-going, essentially 
industrious and industrial community. Their own latent 
power they little understood and rarely used. 

The Chinese, in short, were Pacifists of Pacifists, un- 
ready and unwilling to make the preparations necessary to 
defend themselves even against the most unprovoked at- 
tacks. They were easily overcome and mastered, therefore, 
time after time, by tribes whose sole vocation was plunder 
and slaughter. The Chinese, that is to say, not only ac- 
cepted religions, the foundation of whose creed was peace 
and fraternity among all mankind, but, unfortunately for 
themselves, they acted up to their tenets for generations. 
This was their ordinary rule of life. The records of China 
thus convey one long warning against national disarma- 
ment and contempt for military training, so long as there 
exist within striking distance of the highly-moralised peace- 
worshipping country other peoples who have not yet at- 
tained to this elevated standard of human conduct. Lack 



26 The Awakening of Asia 

of military training, then, merely invites attack. It has 
been calculated that China has suffered from no fewer 
than twenty-three of these inroads and conquests by bar- 
barians from the North and North-West, owing to her 
persistent refusal to organise her people for armed re- 
sistance. 

At intervals, however, this compact of pacifism has 
been broken through, when, under the leadership of excep- 
tionally capable men of their own race, they have risen 
against and overthrown a specially obnoxious barbarian 
Emperor. The last successful national upheaval of this 
kind (before the expulsion of the Manchus and establish- 
ment of the Chinese Republic) was the revolt against the 
Tartar Imperial domination, founded by Kublai Khan, the 
conqueror who endeavoured to follow up his victories on 
the mainland by his ill-fated expedition for the subjuga- 
tion of Japan. This Mongol dynasty was short-lived. It 
lasted only from a.d. 1280 to a.d. 1368. At the latter date, 
a famous Buddhist monk, abandoning the pacifism of his 
creed, and subordinating his fanatic ecstasies and anchorite 
abnegation to his patriotism, raised and drilled a powerful 
army of native Chinese, swept aside the successor of the 
great Kublai, and founded the celebrated Chinese Ming 
dynasty, which lasted for nearly three hundred years, from 
1368 to 1643. Then, the kingdom of peace having once 
more been instituted, the Manchu Tartars came down upon 
the fold and held the throne of China from 1643 to 191 1. 

The general theory that, when nations and Empires 
reach a certain stage of growth they lose their initiative, 
decay and fall into the rear of more vigorous peoples, is 
no explanation of such a long period of arrested develop- 
ment as that to be observed in China. It is difficult to as- 
sign any precise date to the commencement of this period 
of intellectual apathy, though it appears to have begun in a 
noticeable shape towards the close of the Ming dynasty. 



China in the Past 27 

Possibly the competitive system, which became more and 
more a mere barren memorising of the Chinese classics, 
stunted the minds of the learned section of the community. 
Conceivably, the faculty of initiative, which is essentially 
individual, may have been blighted by some unknown phys- 
iologic or psychologic cause. However that may be — and 
such guesswork leads no whither — invention, discovery, 
the adoption of ideas and improvements from other coun- 
tries all seemed gradually to stop from the period indi- 
cated onwards. 

The great, masterful, brilliant race, which had set the 
pace for mankind in almost all directions, ceased to move 
forward, and was content to remain within the limits of 
intellectual accomplishment and scientific and industrial 
achievement it had already reached in the preceding epoch. 
This lapse from the general vigour and continuous advance 
in intelligence, which had enabled the Chinese to surpass 
their neighbours in civilisation, was not due tO' the earlier 
or later Tartar invasions, and could be detected long before 
opium had become a curse to the country. No' step for- 
ward is apparent for centuries, among these people who 
gave Europe, as is believed, the art of printing, gunpowder, 
the mariner's compass, as well as many improvements in 
engineering, besides the ceramic and other arts. 

Yet individually the Chinese give no sign either of 
physical deterioration or of mental decay. In North and 
South alike they apparently retain the fine qualities which 
secured for them their marked pre-eminence, and enabled 
them, many hundreds of years ago, to pervade the whole of 
the Eastern seas with their commerce, to establish a flourish- 
ing Colony in distant Africa, to civilise and educate Japan, 
to dominate Nepal and Burmah, and greatly to influence 
even Eastern Bengal. Such widespread supremacy was 
based upon knowledge and adventurous energy more than 
upon force. Having no stereotyped caste system to split 



28 The Awakening of Asia 

up their social life, and separate it into almost impermeable 
stratifications, nor any hereditary nobility to check demo- 
cratic initiative or cripple popular administration, it is clear 
that they were not cramped by worn-out institutions which 
prevented them from following the bent of their natural 
capacity. The extreme complexity of their language, a 
possible hindrance, was no greater in the period of intel- 
lectual immobility than it had been for centuries before, or 
than it is to-day. Though also, as hinted above, the purely 
literary form of their competitive examinations may be lit- 
tle calculated to secure the best men for administrative posts, 
or to encourage the study of science, yet, even in the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, so much of the old 
organisation and old knowledge remained, that, though 
there was then no perceptible advance, there was at least 
no retrograde movement. Marked ability was still dis- 
played in astronomy, geometry and practical engineering. 
The machinery for progress was all to hand. Only the 
impetus was lacking. 

There has been, also, speaking generally, no set-back 
in Chinese morals, apart from the dreadful opium-smoking 
disease forced upon the country by Europeans. The Chinese 
ethic is quite sound as an exposition of the best side of their 
entire social system. Nowhere is the influence of the family 
greater or more beneficial. Confucianism, the most wide- 
spread of Chinese religions, is a noble ethical creed, which 
dominates daily action, even in regions where other re- 
ligious forms are popular and are accepted by the masses. 
There is no people throughout the East so much respected 
and admired by those, whether Asiatics or Europeans, who 
have close knowledge of them and continuous dealings with 
them as the Chinese. Industrious, straightforward, cheer- 
ful, persistent, loyal, honourable and courteous — these are 
the terms commonly used by men of our own race who 



China in the Past 29 

have lived among them and have taken pains to study their 
character. 

That the Chinese are quite capable of holding their own 
with Europeans in almost any sort of employment is one 
of the difficulties of the near future. Chinese merchants 
and bankers have little to learn from European experts in 
the same line of business. The great industrial Hooeys 
require no teaching even from the most efficient of our 
trade unions. All this being true, the marvel is still unex- 
plained how this gifted people should have remained at the 
same stage of development for centuries, until they are now 
being forced forward by external pressure. 

But the movement has begun. The latent capacities still 
exist. The conservatism of this country of small properties 
and ancient usages has been shaken to its foundations. The 
China of the past is rapidly fading, and the Chinese of the 
present are taking up the line of their own historic achieve- 
ments and will play a great, possibly the greatest, part in 
the future of humanity. 



CHAPTER IV 

CHRISTIANITY IN THE FAR EAST 

The claim of the Nestorian Christians to have "estab- 
lished" Christianity in China in the seventh century is 
based upon the discovery of a monument at Singau-Fu 
purporting to record their work from a.d. 636 to a.d. 781. 
Their propaganda is stated by Gibbon to have gone on 
as late as the thirteenth century. Though direct evidence 
of this missionary effort is hard to discover, and appears 
to have eluded the famous travellers in China who came 
later on the scene, the genuineness of the monument is not 
necessarily doubtful ; nor does there seem to be any special 
reason why the Jesuits of the seventeenth century should 
have forged such a statement in stone. Assuming, how- 
ever, that Gibbon and his commentators, who accept the 
authenticity of the record, are correct, it is strange, if the 
new creed made any great impression in the capital, or in 
the provinces, there should be no trace of this in the Chinese 
annals of the period. There is nothing impossible, or even 
improbable, in the partial success of a Nestorian mission 
to the Far East. But it is further stated that the Christian 
creed made so much progress that it was regarded as dan- 
gerous, and was crushed out so completely that nothing of 
it was left but this monument. The story, therefore, if 
true, is only another strong piece of evidence against the 
value of the zealous and self-sacrificing attempts of Euro- 
pean missionaries to convert the Chinese. 

This vast, strange and seemingly immutable Empire of 
China was for many centuries practically unknown to the 

30 



Christianity in the Far East 31 

West. Occasional travellers found their way there and, like 
Marco Polo, brought back astonishing accounts of Chinese 
civilisation to their own people; but it was not until after, 
the known world had been divided between the two great 
Catholic powers, by papal decree, that the European mis- 
sionaries found their way to China and gained a footing 
there. They made their first converts in 1584. 

The history of Jesuit propaganda in China and Japan 
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries shows the influ- 
ence of Europe upon Asia in a much more important light 
than does the commercial progress which was being made at 
the same time. At one moment it even appeared as if the 
Jesuits would soon control, if not guide, the Chinese Em- 
pire, so great was their influence not only over the Em- 
peror Kuang-Hi himself at Peking, but in many of the 
provinces. The Chinese were not then bitter against for- 
eigners — they went so far as to appoint the father of 
Marco Polo a viceroy — nor opposed to the Christian re- 
ligion ; and the Chinese authorities under instruction of the 
Court were disposed to help, rather than to hinder, the 
propaganda of the new creed. 

The Jesuits, with their statesmanlike astuteness, were 
careful not to run counter to the feelings of the people. They 
used their skill in medicine, and their knowledge of as- 
tronomy and mathematics, to aid the literary class in ex- 
tending their sphere of attainment, and cured the people 
of obstinate ailments without shocking their prejudices. 
By adopting the Chinese dress and making themselves profi- 
cient as far as possible in speaking and writing the Chinese 
language they did their utmost to remove any objections 
to themselves as mere "foreign barbarians," deficient alike 
in culture and manners. More important still, they kept 
the Christianity which they taught to a great extent on the 
plane of the ancient Chinese religions. They took good 
care not to attack the teachings of Confucius, whose ethical 



32 The Awakening of Asia 

religion was accepted by countless millions not wholly eman- 
cipated from less material or more superstitious creeds. 
Above all, they never interfered with the close family rela- 
tions and ancient rites of ancestor-worship, which, in va- 
rious forms, constitute the basis of Chinese social and re- 
ligious life. 

Owing to this prudence, circumspection and regard for 
the feelings of the people they were surprisingly success- 
ful. Probably they would have continued to be so, but for 
the appearance on the scene of more bigoted and far less 
tolerant professors of their faith. Franciscans and Domini- 
cans came into the field and denounced all such attempts to 
inculcate Christianity "along the line of least resistance" 
as a criminal compromise with the Evil One. The Chinese 
converts must accept the whole of the somewhat compli- 
cated doctrines of the Church of Rome, and entirely eschew 
the religious sentiments which, as they did not prevent them 
from embracing Christianity itself, the more far-seeing 
Jesuits permitted their flock to retain. 

Moreover, the new-comers, not content with this ill- 
judged and untimely intolerance, allowed it to appear that 
religious control might easily extend to civil dominance, 
and took no heed to disguise their personal and sectarian 
differences from the Chinese officials and public. There- 
upon, the Chinese all became suspicious. The Pope un- 
wisely supported the stricter sect of propagandists and, al- 
though this mistake was remedied by his successor, the mis- 
chief, from the Catholic point of view, had been done. 
The Jesuit fathers, who had obtained all but supreme influ- 
ence in China, were flouted, the many Christians they had 
converted were maltreated, and a systematic persecution 
began. Thus the great success achieved by early mission- 
aries in the seventeenth century was completely obliterated 
in the eighteenth, and the propaganda has never recovered 
from the antagonism thus aroused. This change of atti- 



Christianity in the Far East 33 

tude on the part of the Chinese was not due to religious 
rancour; though of course priests of a rival creed took ad- 
vantage of popular ill-feeling against the foreigners who 
undermined and weakened their own cult. It arose from 
the conviction that, in one way or another, the Catholic 
missionaries were aiming at the overthrow of ancientt 
Chinese civil as well as religious institutions. And this was 
true. As will be seen, the same causes produced even more 
serious effects, about the same time, in Japan. 

It is greatly to the credit of the Jesuits that they were 
still able to recognise and to record the high character of 
the great nation with whom they had sO' unfortunately 
come into conflict. The following sketch of the Chinese 
character and conduct by French Jesuit fathers in China 
was written after the tide of prosecution had begun to 
flow furiously against their coreligionists. No modern 
friend of China has given a more appreciative account of 
this fine people: 

"The Chinese, generally speaking, have very charming 
manners. If their character lacks the attractive vivacity 
which we ourselves appreciate because it is almost innate in 
us, it is likewise far removed from the sudden anger and 
violence with which many Europeans may be taxed. 

"Education is excellent in China: it is based on filial 
piety, respect for the aged, and minutiae of ceremonial, 
possibly trifling in themselves, but nevertheless necessary, 
or at least useful, in maintaining order, peace and confi- 
dence. A man can only rise by study and work ; there are 
schools in all the towns where the young are taught at the 
expense of the Government, and undergo^ stiff examinations 
before being promoted to the three grades of literature 
which give the right to official employment and honours. 

"There is no hereditary nobility, and the children of a 
famous father must distinguish themselves or fall into ob- 
scurity. 



34 The Awakening of Asia 

"Jurisprudence, ethics, Chinese characters are the sci- 
ences chiefly taught in the Chinese schools, and the doc- 
trine of Confucius, the celebrated philosopher who lived 
about 500 years before Christ, is the basis of all studies. 

"The political administration of China rests solely upon 
the mutual duties of fathers and children. The Emperor 
is the father and mother of the Empire. A Viceroy is the 
father of the province where he rules, as a Mandarin is the 
father of the town he governs. 

"This constitution of government is so natural, so mild 
in China, the peoples are so accustomed to it, that they can- 
not imagine a better. 

"They obey out of respect, they order with considera- 
tion, and when firmness is needed it is that of a father, not 
of a tyrant. There are, nevertheless, some sad exceptions, 
and kings and peoples have sometimes experienced that it 
is very difificult never to abuse absolute power, 

"All the tribunals are so subordinated that it is almost 
impossible that prejudice, position, or corruption influence 
the judgments, as every civil or criminal case is submitted 
to the decision of one or several superior Courts. 

"When it is a question of condemning a man to death, 
no precaution seems excessive to the Chinese. The fiat 
of the Emperor himself is needed for the humblest of the 
people as for the greatest lord, and no judge can put a citi- 
zen to death except in case of sedition and revolt. 

"Nothing contributes more to the tranquillity which 
this vast Empire enjoys than the police to be seen in the 
towns. It is precise, vigilant, severe, and the Mandarins 
are responsible, under penalty of losing their position, for 
the least disorder which takes place in their department. 

"In spite of so much wisdom, precaution and paternal 
care, the Chinese people are like other people everywhere. 
Errors and even crimes are committed; but they are per- 
haps more uncommon, they are not tolerated, and vice does 



Christianity in the Far East 35 

not thus flaunt itself boldly, especially in the interior of the 
Empire, for on the coasts and in the frontier towns com- 
merce with strangers has changed the character of the 
Chinese and the purity of their morals. 

"This nation also must not be judged by what strangers 
tell us, who have only seen it superficially and who only 
know its outside. 

"Agriculture is held in great honour in China; trade 
flourishes there, and astronomy as well as geometry are 
assiduously cultivated. They are bound to have knowledge 
of these principles in order to excavate and complete the 
immense canals which traverse the various provinces and 
serve to protect them against inundations as well as to 
facilitate the communications which are necessary in such 
a vast Empire." 

But these favourable views of the Chinese did not pre- 
vent the Jesuits from denouncing the sale and maltreat- 
ment of children, which was then too common, nor from 
criticising vigorously other objectionable features of Chinese 
social life. The following passage shows also that the 
worthy fathers — for in China they were worthy, as well 
as self-sacrificing and wonderfully courageous — were not 
devoid of very bitter prejudices in favour of their own 
faith. Thus : "Bonzes are here in very great numbers. No- 
where in the world has the Devil better imitated the holy 
ceremonies with which the Lord is worshipped in the true 
Church. The priests of Satan have long robes which fall 
to their feet, with very large sleeves that precisely re- 
semble those of some European clergy. They live together 
in their pagodas, as in convents, gO' forth to beg in the 
streets, get up in the night to worship their idols, and sing 
many songs in a manner which closely resembles our 
psalmody." It would be interesting to read the comments 
of a learned Buddhist on this amusing passage. 

Though Christianity was never numerically strong in 



36 The Awakening of Asia 

China it is beyond question that at one time, owing to the 
extraordinary partiality for its votaries shown by the Em- 
peror Kuang-Hi, the CathoHc rehgion exercised great and 
beneficial influence, and might have taken root permanently 
as one of the recognised creeds of the Empire. Weak- 
ened by injudicious intolerance, Christianity was then 
crushed by cruel persecution. It has never recovered. Cath- 
olic and Protestant missionaries have carried on their 
propaganda unceasingly, in the face of great difficulties and 
dangers. But the results of their efforts have been very 
trifling. They have indeed so far only helped to bring 
about those organised and unorganised risings against for- 
eigners which are tending to combine all China in a demand 
for the final exclusion of these religious zealots. 

China at the date of the arrival and subsequent success 
of the Jesuits was a vast Empire organised by peace for 
peace. Japan at the same time was controlled by a caste 
which, supreme in the various tribes, was organised by war 
for war. The contrast between the two countries was very 
marked. China even then had probably more than 
300,000,000 inhabitants and was governed by a set of literati 
who owed their civil positions to their success in purely 
academic examinations. Japan, with a tenth of this popu- 
lation, was nominally ruled by the Mikado but really by 
a succession of Mayors of the Palace with the name of 
Shogun. These Shoguns themselves, however, were then 
no more than the heads of the great feudal nobles, the 
Daimyos, who were supreme in their several provinces. 
The fighting retainers of these provincial magnates were 
probably as brave and devoted a set of warriors as ever 
took the field, enjoyed the luxury of individual combat, or 
committed suicide, in accordance with ancestral custom, in 
order to avenge upon their own persons the death of a 
great chief, or the real or imaginary wrongs from which 
they themselves had suffered. 



Christianity in the Far East 37 

The people of old Japan have been described by many 
writers. Owing their civilisation entirely to the Chinese, 
they developed a domestic life and art of their own which 
in some respects surpassed the teaching of their instructors. 
The picturesque charm and pleasing manners of the in- 
habitants delighted all visitors in those days from which 
modern Japan is now so distant, far more remote than the 
actual four hundred years. The ancient religion of the 
country, Shintoism, a highly developed form of ancestor- 
worship, had been overlaid to a great extent by Buddhism, 
imported from China, and, despite its widespread influence, 
regarded with distrust and dislike by the ablest of the Sho- 
guns, on account of its interference in political affairs. The 
only foreign nations except the Chinese who then carried 
on commerce with the Japanese were the Dutch and Portu- 
guese. The first Jesuit missionaries, who began their work 
in 1550, were Portuguese. 

This religious invasion from Europe was much more 
successful in Japan than was the simultaneous movement 
in China. The introduction of Christianity into Japan by 
the Portuguese missionaries was in fact the very greatest 
danger which has ever threatened that country. At first, 
the reigning Shoguns, like the Emperor of China, favoured 
Christianity, partly in this case as an antidote to dominant 
Buddhism. Many of the great Daimyos were converted. 
Their Samurai followed their lead and appeared with a 
banner bearing the Cross as their emblem. By the year 
1 58 1, within a generation, that is to say, Christianity had 
grown popular and was spreading throughout the islands. 
There were then two hundred churches in Japan, and in 
1585 a Japanese religious embassy was sent to Rome. 

As they gained strength in certain provinces, under the 
leadership of the Jesuits, who were forced by competition 
beyond their usual politic action, the Christians became 
furiously intolerant. All the worst features of religious 



38 The Awakening of Asia 

rancour were manifested. Thousands of Buddhist temples 
were burnt down, Buddhist priests were slaughtered whole- 
sale, and ancient works of art were destroyed to an enor- 
mous extent. The Jesuits as well as the Franciscans and 
Dominicans praised these outbreaks as evidence of the 
highest religious zeal. Thereupon followed the natural re- 
action against the new faith. 

This reaction began, as Christianity had spread, locally 
in the provinces. The central authority, not then so pow- 
erful as it became later, acted at first v/ith extreme leniency 
in regard to the teachers of Christianity and their votaries. 
From that point of view the Jesuits and even the Domini- 
cans had little to complain of. They were given full lib- 
erty to propagate their religious doctrines, so long as those 
doctrines, when accepted by the nobles and the people, car- 
ried with them no menace to the existing society. Even 
the earlier outrages by the Christians were condoned. They 
were warned to keep within limits in their action, but their 
preaching was unfettered. Japanese tolerance was, in fact, 
at this period remarkable. 

The success which accompanied the Jesuit missions is 
surprising. For Christianity was "essentially opposed to all 
the beliefs and traditions upon which Japanese society was 
founded." Owing to the caution and policy of the orig- 
inators of the mission, this was not observed at the begin- 
ning of their work. Those who accepted the doctrines did 
not show hostility to the old creed and old observances, 
which were essentially collective in their essence. Chris- 
tianity, on the other hand, is a religion of the individual, 
with what appears to all who regard human society as an 
organised whole, something of an Anarchist taint. Sooner 
or later, therefore, the spread of the Christian religion 
meant not only the weakening of other religions but the 
sapping of State authority itself. Ancient Rome was tol- 
erant of all creeds and gave the most various deities from 



Christianity in the Far East 39 

all parts of the world welcome in the Imperial City. It 
was only when the Christians showed, as individuals, a 
disposition to revolt against the Roman State that Trajan, 
the most tolerant and magnanimous of Emperors, per- 
mitted them to be persecuted. It was not their worship but 
their theories of civil life he objected to. Those theories 
and their accompanying actions struck at the roots of hu- 
man society, as Trajan and his friends understood it. So 
in Japan. From the point of view of highly enlightened and 
capable Japanese rulers and statesmen, Christianity struck 
not only at Buddhism and Shintoism, but at all ancient 
customs and all ancient laws. To the Japanese State it was 
a cruel and subversive creed which would wreck the old 
ideas of devotion to ancestors, loyalty to the district, tribe 
and superior, filial piety and family duty. For this was sub- 
stituted sheer anarchy under the foreign leadership and 
foreign domination of the Pope and his agents. 

Yet, had it not been for the rashness of the Dominicans 
and the destructive intolerance of the converts, egged on by 
these religious zealots, the Catholic propaganda might easily 
have got so far as to render any attempt at suppression 
futile. But the furious zeal of the newly arrived monks 
and the outrages which they planned and fomented ren- 
dered their position wholly untenable. Christianity by it- 
self was acceptable to a growing minority: Christianity 
wedded to fanatical revolt could hope for no mercy from 
the people at large. Civil and religious liberty in every 
sense is the end and aim of every progressive community. 
But that stage had not then been reached in Japan. Per- 
secution is immoral and reactionary, whether used against 
Catholics or Socialists. Yet the adherents of any faith who 
set to work to burn and slay and destroy, in the name of 
their supernatural or material deity, can scarcely complain 
if the same weapons are turned against themselves. 

The Japanese at length felt that the Christians con- 



40 The Awakening of Asia 

stituted a desperate danger to the whole State, of which the 
reorganisation and partial centralisation under the Sho- 
guns had only just begun. Clemency and consideration 
produced no effect. The Jesuits and their brother priests 
paid little or no attention to remonstrance, or mild measures 
of repression. At last the foreigners and their followers 
joined battle in earnest with the Japanese authority as rep- 
resented by the Shogun. In 1606 an Edict was promul- 
gated forbidding all further Christian propaganda and de- 
claring that all converts must abandon Christianity. It was 
a strong measure and one inevitably bound to be followed 
up by vigorous action, unless Japan was to undergo a 
Christian revolution, for which the country, as a whole, was 
quite unprepared. 

Unfortunately, the monastic orders who were in con- 
trol paid no attention to this enactment. They thought 
they were already strong enough to resist successfully the 
central power. The fathers deceived themselves. But their 
preparations and the support they had received from the 
Christian Daimyos and their warlike followers showed 
clearly that the Shogun and his Council had by no means 
underrated the peril they had to face. The renewed propa- 
ganda of the Catholics brought into Japan not peace but a 
sword with a vengeance. From religious antagonism the 
struggle developed into ferocious civil war, in which bigotry 
and patriotism strove furiously for mastery. As the re- 
bellion spread and the real Issues at stake became plain, the 
more powerful of the Daimyos withdrew their support 
from the Christian armies. But the struggle went des- 
perately on. By degrees, from 161 7 onwards, the fighting 
became more and more barbarous, the most horrible tor- 
tures being inflicted upon the foreign priests and their 
converts. The great Shogun lyeyasu and his son and suc- 
cessor were finally victorious, after twenty years of continu- 
ous fighting. The war ended in the siege and capture of 



Christianity in the Far East 41 

the great sea-fortress Hara, where tens of thousands of the 
insurgents — who had appealed for foreign help from with- 
out — were put to the sword by a powerful Government 
army. This occurred in 1638. It was regarded as a ter- 
rible lesson by victors and vanquished alike. Thencefor- 
ward Christianity has had no hold on Japan. 

So serious, however, had been the effort of the Chris- 
tians to obtain civil and religious control, and so costly to 
the country was their suppression, that Japan then cut itself 
off dejfinitely from European intercourse. Only the Dutch 
were allowed even to trade under very stringent conditions. 
All European ships, except the Dutch, entering Japanese 
ports were destroyed, and Japanese who left Japan could 
not return. Thus, within a hundred years, Europeans and 
their religion, after amazing success, were completely 
crushed and excluded from the country. For more than 
two centuries this policy of exclusion was maintained. 

Lafcadio Hearn explains the early success of Chris- 
tianity on these grounds : First, because at the beginning 
of their propaganda the Jesuits did not attack ancestor- 
worship. Secondly, because the Catholic ceremonial was 
so like the Buddhist rites in every way — as we have already 
seen by the admission of the Jesuits themselves in China. 
Thirdly, the pressure brought to bear on the Christianised 
Daimyos, who were anxious to obtain European arms by 
commerce with the Portuguese. Whether this was so or 
not, and much as Christians naturally regret the manner in 
which Japan relieved herself from the menace to her insti- 
tutions that the spread of this religion inevitably involved, 
we cannot deny that the proceedings of the Catholic mis- 
sionaries in China and Japan were, at first unintentionally, 
but afterwards in both cases intentionally, directed towards 
establishing foreign influence and foreign control over the 
two most civilised nations of the Far East. It was a sys- 
tematic invasion of great and ancient countries of a most 



42 The Awakening of Asia 

subtle character, which, but for the lack of discretion shown 
by some of the fathers, might have led to disruption and 
national ruin. 

Asia is the land of long memories. These attempts 
to obtain civil domination through religious propaganda 
have never been forgotten either in China or in Japan. 

Though the Portuguese established a powerful Empire, 
with its capital at Goa, under the religious control of the 
Catholic Church, Christianity has never at any period 
achieved anything in India approaching to the success which 
it temporarily attained farther East. From the days of 
Francis Xavier until now, Christianity has made no way 
in Hindustan; although for more than a hundred and fifty 
years a Christian nation has been the most powerful, and 
for nearly a hundred years the dominant, influence in that 
great country. We need not here consider why the Chris- 
tian religion has so completely failed to make head against 
BrahminisiTi and Mohammedanism. The strange combina- 
tion of trade, piracy, intrigue and conquest which gained 
for England her Indian Empire is a most important factor 
in the successful pressure upon the Far East and will be 
dealt with fully later on. 



CHAPTER V 

OPIUM IN CHINA 

There is not much to praise in the rule of the Manchu 
Tartars in China. They obtained domination over a people 
far superior to themselves through causes already men- 
tioned; and the best that can be said of them as adminis- 
trators is that they did not do so much harm to their con- 
quered subjects as might have been expected, until within 
the past generation at any rate. And in view of the end- 
less denunciation which they now receive from their lately- 
emancipated critics, it is fair to recall that, from the first 
and all through, they set their faces against the pernicious 
habit of opium-smoking, tried their utmost to stop it, and 
issued Imperial Edict after Imperial Edict to suppress it 
altogether. The earliest Edict against the opium habit was 
promulgated in China nearly two hundred years ago. This 
was by the Emperor Yung Chang, in 1729. Up to that 
date, so far as is known, only two hundred chests a year 
had been used in China, although opium had been a mo- 
nopoly of the Mogul Government for more than a century. 
But, from the beginning of the eighteenth century onwards, 
the trade steadily increased, in spite of the opposition of 
the Peking Government and of the Chinese themselves. This 
increase was almost entirely due to European, and espe- 
cially to English, trade. 

It is still the fashion to speak of European influence 
as beneficial to Asia. How far it has been so up to the 
present time the most enthusiastic believer in "The White 

43 



44 The Awakening of Asia 

Man's Burden" would find it exceedingly difficult to show. 
Certainly, nothing whatever has been done in China which 
can be regarded as the slightest makeweight against the 
hideous mischief brought upon the people of that great Em- 
pire by the opium traffic. The sole object of this nefarious 
trade was to make money. It was well known to its pur- 
veyors that opium-smoking was a curse to China in every 
possible way. The vice destroyed by degrees both body and 
mind. In whole districts, where the people were devoted 
to opium-smoking, the adult male population slowly became 
incapable of any active exertion and gradually descended 
from crapulous debauchery into blank despair. That made 
no difference to English merchants, English capitalists, Eng- 
lish politicians or English statesmen. Huge profits could 
be realised by comparatively small outlay. Poverty-stricken 
Indian finance could be helped by an opium monopoly. 
So opium was "good business." 

The lucky adventurers who had made millions out of 
the degradation of the Chinese exercised great political in- 
fluence on their return home. And no attention whatever 
was paid to the unceasing protests of the Chinese Govern- 
ment; the vigorous agitation of English philanthropists, in 
which the Quakers played a leading part, was disregarded ; 
the universal testimony of doctors and other independent 
witnesses as to the crime which was being committed against 
the physical and mental well-being of the Chinese was 
thrust aside ; even the statements of leading English offi- 
cials on the spot were pooh-poohed. There is no portion 
of English commercial history more shameful to our coun- 
try or more degrading to the character of its traders and 
statesmen than the plain unvarnished record of the Opium 
Trade with China. England forced more than one war 
upon the unfortunate and wholly unprepared Chinese, 
solely in the interest of the vendors of this pernicious drug. 
England seized Chinese territory in order to afford harbour 



Opium in China 45 

to her smugglers, who landed increasing cargoes of opium 
in China in defiance of the Chinese Government. 

England by her inhuman policy literally forced the 
Chinese Government to permit the growing of opium in 
China itself, in order to obtain some control over this 
illegal traffic. I believe no Englishman can read a plain 
account of what was done without understanding why for- 
eigners denounce his country as a nation which, while 
claiming high morality, never allows any consideration 
of human wellbeing to interfere with its greed for gain. 
Happily, this miserable opium trade is now being sup- 
pressed. But England bargained hard for its maintenance 
to the last. And Asiatics, who have a good memory in 
such matters, are not likely to forget in our day the conduct 
of the English Government in this important affair. 

In 1773 the East India Company themselves took up 
and encouraged the opium trade which had previously 
been carried on by private merchants and individual ad- 
venturers. The Company pursued much the same course 
with the opium traffic that they did in regard to extension 
of their territory in India. Their published documents and 
correspondence denounced the use of the drug — whose bane- 
ful qualities, when habitually used for smoking, were well 
understood — except for medicinal purposes. The directors 
also declared their opposition to any illicit commerce, car- 
ried on in defiance of the enactments of the Chinese Gov- 
ernment. On the surface, nothing could have been more 
straightforward and honourable than their conduct. They 
even went so far as to put the Company's servants under 
stringent regulations, which forbade them to partake in 
the traffic, except by licence, under pain of instant dis- 
missal. Yet the trade went on steadily increasing, no longer 
by hundreds but by many thousands of chests a year, with 
corresponding profits to the Company and their agents. 

The restrictions which the directors piously imposed 



46 The Awakening of Asia 

out of "compassion for mankind" were continually relaxed 
out of regard for their own dividends. That is the simple 
truth. They even extended the cultivation of opium in 
India more widely, to the great injury of the native farmers, 
in order to meet the rapidly growing demand from China. 
All the evidence, quoted from official reports by Mr. 
Samuel Rowntree and others, goes to show that the trade 
was so nefariously conducted that its thoroughly piratical 
and infamous character was universally recognised. The 
vessels used were furnished with large guns as well as other 
offensive weapons of all kinds, and direct smuggling from 
them was conducted by fast boats manned by sailors who 
themselves were armed to the teeth. So matters went on 
for more than half a century. 

Although the Imperial Government of China never 
ceased to denounce this importation as ruinous to China, 
and again and again passed Edict after Edict against the 
smuggling of opium, "which poisons the Empire," the local 
Chinese authorities and the combination of Chinese mer- 
chants known as the Hong were always ready to assist in 
a business which brought to the former a steady income in 
bribes and gave the latter enormous profits. The sales of 
opium had risen to 17,000 chests in 1835, from the trifling 
amount of 200 chests in 1729. And this although, through- 
out, the successive Emperors were bitterly hostile to 
the importation, as well as to home cultivation of the 
poppy. The whole trade was, in fact, conducted as a 
piratical smuggling war, whose managers resorted to every 
conceivable infamy in order to expand the shameful busi- 
ness. Fighting and slaughter were common whenever hon- 
est Chinese officials attempted to resist the smugglers. 
These bandits gained in boldness by impunity, and their 
confidence that after 1835 they had the British Govern- 
ment at their back encouraged them still more. 

So fatal was the traffic to China, so outrageous the 



Opium in China 47 

infringement of that Empire's rights, that the principal 
English officer on the spot went as far as he could in his 
despatches to persuade his Government to come to some 
definite decision on the subject. This was the more neces- 
sary since the Chinese Government, in the face of such treat- 
ment, had naturally become incensed and threatened re- 
prisals. Nor could it be disputed that the Court of Peking 
was quite within its rights in taking the strongest steps to 
suppress a shameful trade, which had been declared illegal 
by a succession of Imperial Edicts, the validity and pro- 
priety of which were admitted by the representatives of the 
foreigners themselves. The latter even asked that, in view 
of the abominable nature of the entire commerce, the brutal 
and ruthless manner in which it was carried on, and the 
increasingly desperate character of the men engaged in 
the smuggling, means should be provided for exercising 
control over British subjects who were responsible for 
all this illegality. This was not done. 

Lord Palmerston on the 15th of June, 1838, wrote as 
follows to Captain Elliot, the British Agent on the spot, 
who was at this time constantly appealing for support from 
home: "With respect to the smuggling trade in opium, 
which forms the subject of your despatches of i8th Novem- 
ber and 19th November and 7th December, 1837, I have to 
state that his Majesty's Government cannot interfere for the 
purpose of enabling British subjects to violate the laws of 
the country in which they trade. Any loss, therefore, which 
such persons may suffer in consequence of the more effectual 
execution of the Chinese law on this subject, must be borne 
by the parties who have brought that loss on themselves 
by their own acts. 

"With respect to the plan proposed by you in your 
despatch of i8th November for sending a special com- 
mission to Chusan to endeavour to effect some arrange- 
ment with the Chinese Government about the opium trade, 



48 The Awakening of Asia 

H.M. Government do not see their way to justify them in 
adopting it at the present moment." 

This despatch was dehvered to Captain Elliot two years 
too late, and was then never published in China! It shows 
clearly the view taken of the traffic by Lord Palmerston 
at that time. 

In spite of this plain speaking, the supposed interests 
of Indian Finance and the profits of English merchants 
drove matters steadily from bad to worse. No wonder the 
Chinese Government resorted at last to strong measures. 
Such outrages by foreigners would have forced any Euro- 
pean State to declare war long before. Commissioner Lin, 
however, who was specially empowered to put an end to the 
trade, sent a fine address on behalf of his countrymen to be 
forwarded to Queen Victoria. This was in 1839. Once 
more the Chinese Minister pointed out, in dignified lan- 
guage, the terrible effect of the opium traffic on the Chinese, 
and appealed to England, on the grounds of common hu- 
manity, to combine with the Chinese Government in stop- 
ping the whole trade. The appeal was useless. 

Again, after admitting that the traffic was shameful, 
and even agreeing that a vast amount of opium should 
be surrendered and the trade put an end to, incidental 
troubles arose which were used by Great Britain to justify 
warlike measures. In 1840 began a series of attacks, 
bombardments, sacks of cities and massacres of the Chi- 
nese, commencing at Chusan and spreading to other ports, 
which have never been surpassed in infamous ferocity by 
any race of savages in the world. They were spoken of 
freely by Englishmen of high position as "wanton atro- 
cities." 

There was no excuse whatever for what was done. 
The cause of conflict was bad enough : the vengeance 
wrought on the unoffending Chinese population remains 
a permanent stigma on our English character. Against 



Opium in China 49 

the conduct of the "Western barbarians" the behaviour 
of Commissioner Lin stands out as that of a true patriot 
and man of the highest honour. He was undoubtedly very 
zealous in his efforts to save his countrymen from being 
poisoned for the profit of unscrupulous foreigners; and 
he passed beyond the limits of mere prudence in resisting 
the wholly illegal demands of a set of piratical adven- 
turers, armed with weapons which the Chinese were pow- 
erless to resist. It is also unfortunately true that some 
of the Chinese officials themselves, by their acceptance of 
heavy bribes from the smugglers, and afterwards by the 
cultivation of opium in the Provinces with the counte- 
nance of the local Mandarins, played directly into the 
hands of the foreigners against the welfare of their own 
countrymen. But, when every allowance is made and all 
possible pleas are urged on behalf of English policy, the 
fact remains that war was forced upon China in support 
of a commerce which is now universally admitted by Eng- 
lish Governments, as well as by all individual English- 
men, to have been an accursed trade from every point of 
view. 

The result of the war was a foregone conclusion. It 
was not a war, indeed, but a succession of butcheries and 
massacres, in which British sailors and soldiers ran lit- 
tle risk and covered themselves with infamy. They fought 
for the right to poison the Chinese people, in defiance of 
the prohibition of the importation by the Chinese Gov- 
ernment; all solely in the interests of the opium-smug- 
gling profiteers. Thus and thus only the Treaty of Nan- 
kin of 1842 was secured. Commissioner Lin was sacri- 
ficed to the aggressors. The island of Hong Kong was 
ceded to Great Britain. The Chinese paid heavy indemni- 
ties and defrayed all debts and expenses. 

The illegality of the traffic was acknowledged on the 
English side after this war of butchery, as it had been 



50 The Awakening of Asia 

before. Nevertheless, the opium trade steadily grew. Hong 
Kong became a fortified place of protection for smugglers 
under the British flag. Every effort was at once made 
to "legalise" the importation. Lord Palmerston, whose 
previous despatch is partly given above, actually instructed 
British agents to "endeavour to make some arrangements 
with the Chinese Government for the admission of opium 
into China as an article of lawful commerce"! The Chi- 
nese Emperor, in reply to the suggestion that he should 
accede to this, and place a heavy duty on the import of 
opium, said at this time in a public manifesto: "I can- 
not prevent the introduction of the poison: gain-seeking 
and corrupt men will for profit and sensuality defeat my 
wishes; but nothing will induce me to derive revenue from 
the vice and misery of my people." It was and remains 
a noble reply. The hypocrisy of preaching a high Chris- 
tian morality to the Chinese, while thus outraging all de- 
cency and humanity, by way of trade in poison, is obvious. 
From 1842 onwards the traffic went on even more 
completely in defiance of right and justice than it did 
before. Hong Kong was organised openly as an enemy 
stronghold, where English and Chinese smugglers, and 
pirates and desperadoes of every description, found pro- 
tection under the British flag. Continuous warfare ensued, 
to all intents and purposes of the kind which used to be 
waged by the Dey of Algiers along the coasts of the Medi- 
terranean, The "foreign devils" necessarily became more 
and more hated. They deserved the animosity felt for 
them. They were attacked by the mob in some instances. 
Even where no lives were lost terrible reprisals were re- 
sorted to by the English authorities. Not content also 
with maintaining the right of smuggling under arms for 
British adventurers and their own vessels, the local offi- 
cials at Hong Kong actually went so far as to grant licenses, 
still under the British flag, to lorchas, very smart coasting 



opium in China 51 

craft used for smuggling opium, armed and manned by 
Chinese pirates, who defied their own Government, again 
under the British flag. Such action was dead against all 
international law, and manifestly a direct infringement of 
Chinese Imperial rights within Chinese waters. 

The case of the lorcha Arrow, which led to the Sec- 
ond Opium War, was only one of numerous similar cases 
that escaped notice. The Arrow, whether saihng under 
unexpired British licence or not, was undoubtedly a pirati- 
cal vessel engaged in smuggling and piratical warfare. But 
when the Chinese, knowing well that she was manned by 
pirates who indulged in plundering and murder as well as 
in smugghng, seized the boat and arrested the crew, apolo- 
gies were demanded by Sir John Bowring. When these 
were not forthcoming, bombardment and butchery shortly 
after began, and the Chinese Commissioner on the spot, 
his house having been thoroughly shelled by the British, 
called upon the people to "exterminate the barbarians!" 

Who can blame him? But the war of 1856-7 followed, 
which ended, of course, in the defeat of the Chinese. Even 
then the special British Envoy, when peace was proclaimed 
to the advantage of Great Britain, made no pretence that 
the opium-smuggling was other than ruinous to the peo- 
ple of China who indulged in the drug. Lord Elgin, in 
fact, recognised the iniquity of the whole thing. But the 
old policy still prevailed. The talk was of philanthropy: 
the practice was plunder. And finally, in 1858, the opium 
trade was "legalised," the Chinese Government put a duty 
on the drug, and the Chinese, by importations from India 
and the cultivation of the poppy at home, were thence- 
forth deliberately, but now legally, poisoned. Once more 
justice must be done to the Manchu Emperors. With 
all their faults, on this one subject they never really 
changed their opinion: compelled though they were by 



^ 



52 The Awakening of Asia 

the English campaigns to acquiesce In the poisoning of 
their subjects. 

For nearly fifty years, from 1858 to 1906, this horrible 
trade went on without cessation. If a majority against 
it were obtained in the House of Commons and the 
Indian Government was called upon by Parliamentary 
Resolution to restrict the cultivation and gradually to 
suppress the sale of the drug, no attention was paid to 
the behests of the Imperial Assembly. When a number 
of decent Englishmen, horrified at the effects produced 
by this pernicious trade, kept up a vigorous agitation, in 
order to convince their countrymen of the crimes that were, 
decade after decade, being committed in the Far East in 
their name, and under their flag, these wholly unprejudiced 
people were officially sneered at and denounced, as sour 
fanatics, opposed to legitimate commerce and conspiring 
to wreck the finances of India. 

To such an extent did the opium-smoking plague spread 
that, just before the Chinese Government finally resolved 
to put it down throughout China, at all hazards, it was 
declared on official authority that not fewer than one- 
fourth of the people of the Empire were poisoning them- 
selves with this drug. Opium-smoking, as already said, 
is universally recognised as ruinous to the intellect and 
morals of those who become addicted to it. It is almost 
impossible for anyone to begin to indulge In the habit 
and then to break it off. In this respect it is even more 
dangerous than the disease of alcoholism, or the Injec- 
tion of morphia. The Chinese themselves, as has been 
seen, have no doubt whatever about the fatal effects of 
opium-smoking upon the welfare of the Empire. Much 
as they disliked their Tartar rulers, on this point all 
the best men in China agreed with the Edicts of their Em- 
perors prohibiting the importation and use of opium for 
smoking. 



Opium in China 53 

There are good reasons for mistrust of Christian mis- 
sionary efforts in Asia, and especially in China. But the 
missionaries of all Christian creeds in China, whose opin- 
ion was taken by the Royal Commission appointed, strongly 
condemned the use of opium for smoking, by an over- 
whelming majority. Doctors who have watched on the 
spot the growth of the disease (it is no less) are strongly 
of the same opinion. Yet the Royal Commission was 
so prejudiced in favour of this shameful trade that its 
members combined to burke all unfavourable testimony 
and blamed the Chinese for any mischief which had been 
caused! Royal Commissions and Parliamentary Commit- 
tees are generally appointed either in order to support the 
Government of the day on some foregone conclusion, or 
to whitewash prominent politicians who have been ac- 
cused on evidence of a serious offence, or, lastly, to post- 
pone indefinitely any action which might be opposed to the 
interests of the upper classes. But never was a Royal 
Commission so disgracefully prostituted to perpetuate in- 
famy as this Royal Commission on Opium. 

It is needless to pursue the exposure of English mal- 
practices in this matter further. Outside of those who 
were directly or indirectly interested in the traffic, from 
the pecuniary point of view, it is impossible to obtain 
any evidence in its favour. There is not a single Chinese 
book or pamphlet to be found in its defence; and in risinj:-. 
against foreigners, whether due to religious animosil}' 
towards missionaries or to suspected political interference, 
the denunciation of the Opium traffic supported by the 
^'Foreign Devils" has nearly always made its appearance. 
Whenever Englishmen of character and position have pre- 
sumed to place England on a higher level of conduct and 
morality than China, her action in forcing opium upon 
the Chinese for pecuniary gain has been brought up as 
conclusive evidence against them. I myself well remember 



54 The Awakening of Asia 

highly-educated Chinamen I have met out of China, citing 
this same policy, and the great ignorance and brutality of 
many Englishmen they had encountered, as conclusive 
proof of the immense superiority of their own country- 
men to foreigners. 

Happily, by degrees, it was brought home even to the 
English Government, and through them to the Indian Gov- 
ernment, that the opium trade was not only an outrage 
upon China and upon civilisation generally, but that the 
growth of the poppy in India was not beneficial to Indian 
finance in the long run. Moreover, when competition 
for the general trade of China became keener, owing to 
the appearance on the Chinese market of the United States, 
Germany, Japan and other Powers, we discovered that 
the feeling of the Chinese people against the English, 
owing to the attitude of English merchants on the opium 
question, might seriously prejudice the whole commerce 
with China — of which we had one-half. Simultaneously, 
the long, costly and high-minded propaganda of the So- 
ciety for the Suppression of the Opium Traffic, as well 
as the scathing criticism directed against it in Parliament, 
had its effect upon the public mind and stirred up sudden 
indignation against it. 

For once, therefore, money-getting and morals were 
not wholly at variance. The Chinese Government, con- 
sequently, was emboldened to push its views more vigor- 
ously than ever. What was going on in China rendered 
strenuous action inevitable. The health of a large portion 
of the people was being rotted out of them and ruin stared 
this great country in the face. It was clear also that 
England could not in the twentieth century carry her de- 
testable policy of force in favour of profitable poison- 
selling to a successful issue, as she did in 1842 and 1856-8. 
China might easily have found both an Asiatic and a Euro- 



Opium in China 55 

pean Ally to enable her to make head against a continuance 
of the nefarious proceedings of Great Britain. Surrender 
on the question was practically inevitable. On September 
20, 1906, an Edict was promulgated decreeing the final 
suppression of opium cultivation and opium-smoking 
throughout the Chinese Empire within ten years. The re- 
strictions were drastic in themselves, but, in practice, they 
were enforced even more rigidly than the law demanded. 
Although the Manchu Dynasty was even then tottering 
to its fall, it is clear, by the wholesale abandonment of 
the cultivation of the poppy, as observed by English travel- 
lers, that the entire population was in favour of the adop- 
tion of the policy for which Chinese Emperors and states- 
men had so long and so vainly striven against English 
opposition. The Edict declared that: 

1. The cultivation of the poppy in China must be re- 
stricted annually by one-tenth of the existing area. 

2. All persons using opium were to be registered. 

3. All shops selling opium were to be gradually closed; 
and all places where opium was smoked were to discon- 
tinue the practice within six months. 

4. Anti-Opium Societies were to be officially encour- 
aged and medicines were to be distributed to cure the opium- 
smoking habit. 

5. All officials were requested to set an example to 
the people, and all officials under sixty were required to 
abandon opium-smoking within six months or to withdraw 
from the service of the State. 

Thus, after nearly one hundred years of strenuous en- 
deavour to prevent the development and to check the spread 
of the opium plague, introduced and maintained by British 
arms and influence, from 1729 onwards, the Government 
of China was at last able to secure supremacy in this 
matter within the boundaries of the Empire. In 1907 
the British Government offered a reduction of the cultiva- 



56 The Awakening of Asia 

tion of opium in British India by one-tenth of the area 
devoted to poppy-growing in each year. It may be taken 
for granted, therefore, that this odious traffic is now finally 
suppressed. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE BOXER RISING AND THE REFORMING EMPEROR 

In Western Europe the general impression is that the great 
Chinese revolts, culminating in the Boxer Rising of 1899- 
1900, were unjustifiably directed against harmless foreign- 
ers, mostly missionaries, who were doing that which they 
were fully entitled to do by treaty, and were teaching doc- 
trines and spreading knowledge which could only benefit 
the Chinese themselves. It is very difficult to record the 
long succession of attacks upon apparently well-meaning 
folk who were causing no injury, in such wise as to be 
intelligible to Europeans, without feeling exasperation at 
these apparently brutal and ruthless crimes. There is no 
excuse, we lightly say, from the point of view of common 
humanity, for these abominable actions. 

Nor does it relieve the Chinese from the odium they 
incur to point out that in Europe itself the horrors of St. 
Bartholomew, of the Massacre of the Albigenses, of the 
Peasant War in Germany, of the sack of Rome by the 
Constable de Bourbon, of the Russian pogroms on the 
Jews, or, quite recently, of the German armies in Belgium, 
France and Serbia, are quite as bad as, if not worse than, 
anything which has occurred in China. But such examples 
do show that in the matter of ferocity the West is not 
much in advance of the East, when antagonisms of re- 
ligion, class, or race, are involved. And the Chinese are 
naturally peaceful and conciliatory to a much greater ex- 
tent than even civilised Europeans, The Catholic mis- 
sionaries have borne their testimony as to what the Chi- 

57 



58 The Awakening of Asia 

nese were over the whole of the interior of that great Em- 
pire two centuries ago. Here is the evidence of an Ameri- 
can Protestant missionary at the time of the great Boxer 
Rising, 1 899- 1 900: 

"They have the loftiest moral code which the human 
mind, unaided by divine revelation, has ever produced, 
and its crystalline precepts have been the rich inherit- 
ance of every successive present from every successive 
past. The certainty that this is the best system of hu- 
man thought as regards the relations of man to man is 
as much a part of the thinking of every educated Chi- 
nese as his vertebrae are part of his skeleton; and the 
same may be said of the uneducated Chinese, when the 
word feeling is substituted for thinking. The scholar feels 
because he thinks, the peasant feels without thinking; but 
their feeling is in the same direction, and not infrequently 
of a like intensity when the roots of their natures are 
reached. . . . The Copernican system of astronomy . . . 
is not more firmly accepted in Western lands than are the 
tenets of Confucianism as a whole and in details, intel- 
lectually and psychologically appropriated by the Chinese 
as on a par with a law of nature." 

And this moral teaching of Confucius which is thus 
accepted as the last word in ethics enters into every family 
and underlies every creed. It is impossible to escape from 
it. "Do unto others as you would they should do unto 
you" was the basis of Chinese morality many centuries 
before Christianity was heard of. The Chinese have "an 
instinctive and hereditary aversion from war." As already 
pointed out, they contemn military action and regard sol- 
diers as men of a low grade of humanity. No great Chi- 
nese general has ever dreamed of a vast campaign of con- 
quest, and though the powerful Mongol Emperor, Kublai 
Khan, vainly attempted the invasion of Japan, that venture 
has never been renewed, nor has any effort been made to 



The Boxers and the Emperor 59 

use the huge Chinese population to dominate the rest of 
Asia on land. 

How then has it come about that these peaceful, high- 
minded moral folk have shown such a furious hatred of 
foreigners, not once or twice but repeatedly, during the 
past fifty years — a hatred culminating in the Boxer up- 
heaval, which was supported, if not actually started, by 
the reactionary Empress Dowager and her officials? The 
truth is that the adoption of foreign ideas, nay, the very 
presence of foreigners, forcing their opinions and methods 
upon the Chinese, signifies the break-up of the ancient 
civilisation, if any considerable success is attained by such 
means. No half-measures of resistance are of any avail. 

One of the shrewdest English observers who ever 
passed many years in the Far East gave it as his sober 
judgment that white men were fatal to Asiatics; that 
the good they could do was practically nothing; that the 
evil they wrought was incalculable; and that no Eastern 
State, if it considered the well-being of its people, would 
allow of the settlement of white men in its midst. Once 
there, it was impossible to deal with them effectively other- 
wise than by complete destruction. And to this rule there 
could be no exception. Sooner or later the white man 
must be crushed, if wholesale calamities were to be averted. 

At the time of the Boxer outbreak I conversed on this 
subject with a well-known Frenchman, then President of 
the Banque Russo-Chinoise in Paris. He had lived con- 
tinuously in China for twenty years, could read, write 
and speak Chinese well, had visited all parts of the Empire 
with the consent and help of the Government, and was 
intimately acquainted with Chinese public and domestic 
life. He had personally the highest regard for the Chi- 
nese as a people, and his interests were, of course, bound 
up with the development and trade of China. I asked him 
what he thought of the position. He expressed the opin- 



6o The Awakening of Asia 

ion that the Boxer movement could not be successful at 
that time, but added that he doubted whether in twenty- 
years any Europeans would remain in China. They are 
not suited to the country, said he. This applies to white 
men of every nationality and every creed. 

The missionaries by their constant presence and per- 
sistent propaganda brought home to the Chinese and Jap- 
anese and forced daily upon their attention the fact that 
there was a foreign body that had inserted itself into their 
social life which they could neither absorb nor expel, and 
were therefore compelled to exterminate. With far less 
reason a somewhat similar feeling manifested itself against 
industrial immigrants from Asia into America and Aus- 
tralia, although in their case no religious or political propa- 
ganda was attempted. 

Nor should it be forgotten that, apart altogether from 
the aversion which we consider mere prejudice against 
missionaries, there are other than religious grounds for 
Chinese resistance to the growth of foreign trade. The 
mere spread of commercial civilisation means, in many 
cases, the entire dislocation of the ancient society and 
the temporary ruin, or quite possibly the complete starva- 
tion, of whole sections of the working-people. 

Thus the immense and profitable importations of cot- 
ton cloth, so remunerative to Manchester, threaten China 
with the same fate that befell the unfortunate spinners and 
weavers of India, as a consequence of foreigner-enforced 
Free Trade. As matters stood, quite a large proportion of 
the Chinese workers gained their livelihood, no very good 
one at the best, by spinning yarn and weaving cotton cloth. 
Large districts also grew cotton for this purpose. Sud- 
denly, then, poor folk find their scanty means of subsist- 
ence swept away from them by the appearance on the 
market of cheap foreign goods, which act like a great nat-' 
ural agent of destruction, so far as they are concerned. 



The Boxers and the Emperor 6i 

The foreigner who is denouncing and sapping their re- 
ligion is also by some malefic influence depriving them of 
their chance to work. The foreigner, always the foreigner ! 

So, in another direction, with the railways. Here la- 
bour is demanded for construction, and this may have its 
advantages for a certain class. But, on more than one 
railroad built by foreign capital, under foreign control, 
the management of the Chinese coolies by foreign over- 
seers, very imperfectly acquainted with the language, has 
been abominably bad. Their only idea has been to push 
the business through as rapidly as possible, and the well- 
being or the feelings of Chinese navvies were the last 
things considered. The foreigner once more! 

Then, when the railways are built and running, the 
advantages to certain classes of the population may be 
considerable, but the economic gains to other sections are 
by no means so apparent. In fact, the displacements oc- 
casioned, and the drain of produce brought about for export 
purposes, greatly interfere with all the old arrangements, 
and do so to the detriment of the people who can least 
afford, as they can least understand, or adapt themselves 
to, such wholesale transformations. The discontent may 
be the discontent of ignorance, but that does not improve 
matters for the discontented. All is put down to the for- 
eigner, who has introduced this new system of transport, 
which the local people were opposed to from the first. 
Still the blighting influence of the foreigner! 

Obviously, these improvements must come sooner or 
later. To oppose to them a stolid resistance must be futile. 
But when we consider the meaning of such an upheaval 
as that of 1899- 1900 and denounce it as a revolt of bar- 
barians against the beneficent civilisation of the West, it is 
well to bear in mind, at the same time, that many causes 
have combined to bring about the ugly result. More- 
over, it is quite within the bounds of possibility that, 



62 The Awakening of Asia 

unless great care is taken to accommodate the new methods 
to that steady conservatism which has distinguished the 
fine Chinese race for hundreds and even thousands of 
years, the RepubHc itself may yet have to face a tremen- 
dous wave of reaction. 

It is this possibility which makes the story of the 
Boxer rising worth careful study. The movement was 
due to the concentration of all the feelings of irritation 
touched upon above. The Emperor Huang-Hsu, there- 
fore, seems worthy of more consideration and respect than 
he has yet received, as a wide-minded man of the best 
intentions, who failed because he took little or no account 
of the forces over against him, and because, with the 
rashness of a convinced enthusiast, he forgot that what is 
permissible to an agitator, who is eager to ensure the suc- 
cess of his principles, becomes dangerous in a potentate 
who issues orders that must be obeyed. The Chinese Em- 
peror saw that his forces had been completely defeated 
on land and sea in 1894-5 by an island power with little 
more than one-tenth of the population of his own vast 
Empire, because the Japanese had adopted European meth- 
ods. He also knew that but for the intervention of the 
European nations, Japan would have displaced him from 
the throne, and might either have established a dynasty 
of its own, or assumed a protectorate over all China. That 
would have been the natural result of such a victory as 
Japan had won. The ancient usages therefore were worn 
out. 

The country which first recognised this truth had taken 
the lead in Asia, and would keep it, unless China awakened, 
in like manner, to the hard facts of the time. Convinced 
of the truth of this, the Emperor took counsel with Kang 
Yu Wei, an official who had made a special study of the 
changes in Japan, and, being satisfied of the soundness 
of his ideas of reconstruction, proceeded at once to put 



[The Boxers and the Emperor 63 

them into practical form, regardless of the opposition of 
the Tsung-li Yamen, the leading Council of the Empire, 
and of several of China's leading statesmen. 

The reforming Emperor, Huang-Hsu, went ahead 
much too fast, even if he had made sure of the position 
behind him by familiar Asiatic methods. His succession 
of Edicts were admirable in themselves, from the West- 
ern point of view, and tended to bring Chinese educa- 
tion and Chinese organisation abreast of the most ad- 
vanced European nations, in imitation of the policy adopted 
by Japan. But these Imperial Edicts were promulgated 
too soon, followed too rapidly one after another, and 
failed to take account of the fact that Japan, though she 
owed her civilisation to China, was, at the time of her 
great transformation, in a totally different stage of her 
development. 

The Emperor of China has no such universally-accepted 
God-like authority as the Mikado, nor are the literati, even 
if all were favourable to the Emperor's projects, either 
so powerful or so patriotic as the Samurai of Japan. Yet 
the Edicts prior to the Boxer troubles were undoubtedly 
calculated to revolutionise China completely and still more 
rapidly than Japan had been transformed. The defeat of 
the Chinese forces by the despised Islanders in 1894-5 had 
convinced the ablest Chinese leaders that a reform of the 
Empire on somewhat similar lines, civil and military, was 
inevitable, if China was to avoid foreign conquest or do- 
mestic disintegration. Even Li Hung Chang, whose capac- 
ity and character were much overrated in the West, saw 
that, and so did Yuan-Shl-Kai and others. But the Em- 
peror's plans of reform, if put into effect in the manner 
he ably and courageously, yet most undiplomatically, in- 
tended they should be, would have produced forcible re- 
sistance, even had the Empress Dowager, the Boxers and 
Russia been non-existent. 



64 The Awakening of Asia 

Every department of the Empire was to be reorganised 
immediately, all on Western lines, and with the advice 
and assistance of the detested foreigners in person and 
on the spot, who were everywhere regarded by the people 
with suspicion and hatred. The removal of old officials 
in order to make sure that the programme of the Emperor 
should be effectively put into practice by sympathetic new- 
comers; the constant reminders to Viceroys and others 
from the Emperor himself that the changes upon which 
he had set his heart were not being pushed ahead with 
sufficient zeal and loyalty; the impulse from above simul- 
taneously firing with enthusiasm the young men who, edu- 
cated in Europe, America and Japan, saw all their ideals 
on the high road to realisation; the jubilation of the vari- 
ous sects of missionaries who felt so sure that the "new 
learning" must give them exceptional opportunities for 
the preaching of their creeds that they actually used old 
Chinese temples for Christian churches, and were very 
careless about old graveyards; the vigorous construction 
of railways with no concern for the prejudices or interests 
of the mass of the people — all these coming at once were 
enough to stir a much less conservative race than the Chi- 
nese to furious resistance. 

We know how difficult it is to introduce thorough- 
going reforms, even when they have been recognised as 
beneficial, into the government of any democratic Euro- 
pean State. Not only have Parliament and the people to 
be convinced, but the greatest obstacle of all, the bureau- 
cratic spirit of official opposition, has to be overcome. Eng- 
land has been tinkering with National Education for eight- 
and-forty years, and the denominational bugbear has not 
been overcome even yet. In China the change of the en- 
tire educational system, such as the Emperor proposed and 
tried to force upon the people, touched every portion of 
the learning of which the literati were so proud. Prac- 



The Boxers and the Emperor 65 

tical teaching, largely by foreigners, of positive knowledge 
and science was to follow, and in great part to replace, 
the endless study of the Chinese classics. This came by 
sudden enactment which all must obey. 

New Universities, New Schools of Agriculture, New 
Armies, New Laws, New Postal Services, and so on, in 
every direction, and all at once. It was a magnificent con- 
ception: its effects are being felt, realised, and gradually 
put in practice, at the present time. But it is none the less 
amazing that any man, or any set of men, could imagine 
that all the ideas and methods of age-old China could thus 
be swept into the rubbish-heap in a few months — for the 
Edicts or decrees came hot-foot one on the top of the 
other — without creating serious internal disturbance. The 
chorus of praise which arose from the foreigners, as well 
as from the Chinese who had learnt from them, only made 
opposition more certain and more bitter. Many who know 
China well believe that, had the Emperor and his advisers 
been more judicious, and taken pains to rally to their side 
organised forces of the people ; had they kept the army and 
its commanders in close touch with the Court, and had 
they brought the new proposals gradually before the gov- 
erning class and the people, success might have been 
achieved. It was all a question of time and opportunity. 
In such a matter it is impossible to reason from Europe 
or America to Asia. In these continents we assume prog- 
ress in every country as a matter of course. It may be 
slower or faster, here or there, but progress is going on 
all the time and in nearly every direction. Changes come 
from within, they are not, as a rule, enforced from with- 
out. Thus Revolution is worked up to gradually by the 
necessity of accommodating the political, legal and social 
forms to the stage of economic development which has 
been reached. Such a revolution may be peaceable or 
forcible, according as the dominant class is capable and 



66 The Awakening of Asia 

farsighted, or selfish and tyrannical — according as the sub- 
ject class is courageous and mentally active, or cowardly 
and apathetic. 

But no definite rule can be laid down, nor can the 
precise period of transformation be foreseen and predicted. 
In some cases the economic growth precedes the transfor- 
mation of the general constitution of society: in others 
the political forms actually anticipate the economic de- 
velopment. For example, the French Republican institu- 
tions are two or three generations ahead of the material 
position in France; while in Great Britain the political 
changes lag far behind the economic status. Where edu- 
cation is exceptionally good, also, as in Scandinavia, Fin- 
land, and Switzerland, the general ideas of the working 
population are so far advanced that they can in some de- 
gree anticipate, supervise and guide the movement up to 
the next stage of industrial growth, or even hasten on the 
change towards the desired social end. 

Hence, in any period, the possibility of a revolution, 
in the interest of the next class to be emancipated, depends 
upon two essentials in civilised and progressive countries. 
First that, in the main, the economic, which means the 
productive and distributive, development has reached the 
point where the change is not only desirable but practically 
inevitable; secondly, that the class itself, whose emancipa- 
tion is attaining the period of realisation, comprehends as 
a whole what is going on around it. If the material con- 
ditions are behind the mental conceptions of the actual posi- 
tion, forcible revolution may arise from the natural desire 
of the people to hurry forward the transformation in their 
own interest. Should the material conditions, on the other 
hand, be considerably in advance of the intelligent apprecia- 
tion of the masses, then an anarchical upheaval is scarcely 
to be avoided, unless the dominant minority exhibit ex- 
ceptional sagacity. 



The Boxers and the Emperor 67 

Whether the revolution itself in any country is violent 
or pacific — ^which makes very little difference in the long 
annals of human progress — its real object is to give legal 
and popular sanction to results already partially or wholly 
achieved. Mere force alone cannot greatly accelerate the 
advance; but, used against the people with persistence and 
ruthlessness, it may considerably help reaction. Moreover, 
jany attempt to impose upon a population a beneficial sys- 
tem, for whose acceptance they are unprepared, may, even 
in Europe, bring about a terrible, reactionary set-back. This 
we may discern in "the White Terror" in France, after 
the Revolution had lost its first fervour, and in a less for- 
midable shape in Austria under the well-meaning but doc- 
trinaire progressist, Joseph II. 

The Chinese Emperor's Proclamation in favour of 
progress was, nevertheless, a remarkable document. It 
sharply criticised the shortcomings of China in every di- 
rection, and declared that ancient institutions afforded 
no solution of the difficulties with which the Empire was 
surrounded on every side. Changes must be made, and 
made at once. And the Emperor risked his crown and 
his life upon the success of his new policy. It was mag- 
nificent, but it was not statesmanship. When, however, 
the Republicans, who have again obtained control of the 
Empire after the revolution and Yuan-Shi-Kai's attempted 
usurpation, indulge in unmeasured abuse of the Manchu 
Emperor and Court, unprejudiced students of events may 
recognise that the famous Edicts and Proclamations of 
Huang-Hsu, though they failed to achieve the objects he 
had in view, wrecked his own career and had their share 
in producing the Boxer rising, none the less spread impor- 
tant truths throughout the Chinese Empire and prepared 
the way for the era of progress upon which China, we 
may hope, if left to herself, has now entered. Huang's 



68 The Awakening of Asia 

services should be remembered when his mistakes have 
long been forgotten. 

There is now no doubt whatever that the Boxer Rising 
of 1 899- 1 900 was fostered and helped by the Dowager 
Empress from the Imperial Palace, with the support of 
the other reactionary members of the Imperial Family 
and important Ministers. It scarcely admits of question 
also that Tsarist Russia, being well aware of what was 
going on, neither took any measures to mitigate the grow- 
ing ferment by exercising her preponderating influence in 
Peking, nor advised the other European Powers of the 
dangers of a general reactionary upheaval. It is clear 
that the remarkable success achieved by the organisation 
of the Clenched Fist — a title which may have suggested 
the Kaiser Wilhelm's threat of his Mailed Fist!— was not 
foreseen by Europeans generally; for the Legations at 
Peking were left almost wholly unprotected, and the at- 
tack upon them, even when a great part of China was in 
ferment, took the Ambassadors themselves by surprise. 
As a body, they regarded the Chinese, after their defeat 
by Japan, as an inferior people, who could be divided up 
among the great Powers (not excluding, now, Japan) at 
any time advisable. 

In Peking itself, as in the Treaty Ports, Europeans 
had a town to themselves. They not only claimed the 
right to dwell in the capital, but they resented even being 
overlooked by the native population, did not allow any 
of their people who might commit offences to be dealt with 
under Chinese law, and in fact created an imperium in 
imperio, as independent of Chinese authority as if the ter- 
ritory upon which they had encamped were entirely their 
own. And all this time. In addition to other matters of 
irritation and grievance, the opium traffic was still being 
forced upon the people, in defiance of the wishes of the 



The Boxers and the Emperor 69 

Government, by those same foreigners who made them- 
selves so detestable in religious and other ways. 

Let us imagine similar proceedings going on in any 
European country or colony, or in the United States of 
America. Is it not certain that the whole population 
would, take the first opportunity of rising as one man in 
order to eject the intruders? Is it not also beyond dis- 
pute that, under such circumstances, terrible outrages 
would be committed upon the defenceless foreigners in the 
interior, when the mob — ^meaning the majority of the popu- 
lation — escaped from the control of the local authorities, 
or believed that many of those officials sympathised with 
the rioters? 

Too much importance has been attached to the assaults 
upon missionaries, as if the religious propaganda car- 
ried on by these missionaries of Christianity and fore- 
runners of foreign trade were almost the sole ground for 
the great revolt. No doubt, the murder of the Catholic 
missionaries in Shantung, and the outrageous demands 
made in consequence by the Germans for territorial and 
other concessions, were the sparks which fired the con- 
flagration in that particular region. The Boxer leaders 
and the Government which the Empress Dowager set on 
foot, after the suppression of the unfortunate Huang-Hsu 
and his advisers, naturally took advantage of any such 
anti-Christian outbreak to push ahead their own policy. 
But that policy, as it found expression in the Boxer move- 
ment, was a national policy, organised, not as a provincial 
outbreak, like most Chinese revolts, but as a national effort 
at final emancipation from foreign influence and foreign 
control, secular as well as religious. 

Down with the foreigners! China for the Chinese! 
Those were the universal cries of the well-organised groups 
which showed almost from the first that they had one 
common object. If the ideas of men like Yuan-Shi-Kai 



70 The Awakening of Asia 

with regard to the formation of an effective army had been 
rapidly carried out and the Boxer chiefs had been induced 
to make common cause with such an army when created, 
then the reformist designs of the Emperor and the anti- 
foreign views of the Boxers might possibly have harmon- 
ised. By playing then upon the mutual jealousies of the 
Foreign Powers a gradual reconstruction of China, in de- 
fiance of external influence, might have resulted. 

But as matters stood this was impossible. The Em- 
peror was too revolutionary, the Empress Dowager was too 
reactionary, for either of them to achieve permanent suc- 
cess. All the European and American and Japanese in- 
terests were assailed at the same time. Even Russia was 
compelled to make common cause with the rest. So after 
the Legations at Peking, with those who had taken shel- 
ter in the rapidly-improvised defences, were saved from 
destruction by an international combination of armies, the 
revolt was suppressed and the whole agitation died down. 

It must be admitted that the conduct of the Allies dur- 
ing their advance and the looting which they permitted in 
Peking and its neighbourhood were wholly unworthy of 
the troops of civilised nations. Nothing done by the Ger- 
mans in their attacks upon Belgium and France was worse 
than the savagery of the Allied forces in their campaign 
against the Boxers in China. Their ravaging, sacking, 
plundering, burning, as well as their treatment of women, 
fully justified all the charges brought against the whites 
as barbarians. Undoubtedly the behaviour of the Boxers 
had been abominable and their cruelty and treachery were 
inexcusable. The cold-blooded murder of the German 
Envoy, Baron von Ketteler, was contrary to all interna- 
tional law and opposed to the common rules of humanity, 
which none know better than the Chinese. But this was 
no reason for the maltreatment of the agricultural popula- 
tion, or for the looting of the Imperial Palace. It was a 



The Boxers and the Emperor 71 

recrudescence of the brutality and ruffianism displayed by 
the English in their opium wars, and did much to shake 
the confidence in English and American justice which had 
slowly grown up. The demand for heavy indemnities and 
the seizure of important blocks of territory by England, 
Russia, Japan and even Germany, made matters still worse. 
Only the United States, by returning its share of the in- 
demnity for lives sacrificed and property destroyed, showed 
something of the higher spirit of civilisation and humanity. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE BOXER RISING AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 

The behaviour of the Allies after the suppression of the 
Boxers was not of a kind to render European relations 
with the Chinese people any more friendly than they were 
before. Far from it. China during the advance upon 
Peking and in the settlement arrived at was treated as a 
conquered country and her territory was appropriated right 
and left, apart from the exaction of a huge indemnity. 
Russia laid hands upon Manchuria as her sphere of in- 
fluence. Japan demanded preponderance in Korea and 
sowed the seeds of trouble in other directions. Germany 
seized upon Tsing-Tau and the province of Kiau Chau, 
without a title of justification, England, not to be behind- 
hand in the race of dishonour, grabbed the port of Wei- 
Hai-Wei, which has not been and never will be of any 
use to her. The United States alone acted with unexpected 
moderation and refused to have part or lot either in the 
indemnity or in the annexation of territory. 

Such proceedings, taken as a whole, were little likely 
to produce a favourable effect upon China. In fact, the 
policy of revenge adopted by the European Powers went 
far to strengthen, especially in the provinces so outrage- 
ously ravaged by the Allied armies, that desperate hatred 
of foreign interference, which was at the bottom of the 
entire Boxer troubles. Nor was the prospect of the over- 
throw of the Manchu dynasty, judged from the European 
point of view, any brighter than it had been before. Yet 
all the while the new ideas set forth in the revolutionary 

72 



The Boxer Rising 73 

Edicts of the Emperor Huang-Hsu were making way 
with a rapidity destined to surprise even those who were 
best acquainted with China and the Chinese. It is strange 
that the most enlightened and progressive of modem Man- 
chus, who sujffered personally for his own foresight and 
capacity, should have done more to hasten the downfall 
of his own Imperial family than had any of his reaction- 
ary predecessors. 

Though the Manchu Emperors at Peking, to whom 
were accorded divine attributes, could appoint, remove, re- 
ward or behead Viceroys and Mandarins at their pleasure, 
and held military domination over the provinces ruled by 
these Imperial subordinates, nevertheless the administra- 
tion of the provinces was in the main local and was not 
much interfered with from above. There was no com- 
plete centralisation under the Government of Peking. The 
provinces were also strongly attached to their independence. 
Even under the most despotic of the Manchus, China was 
therefore rather an Imperial Federation of Provinces than 
a militarist Empire. Below tlie Manchu sovereignty the 
old Chinese customs, religions and methods of administra- 
tion steadily held their ground. Moreover, in at least one 
of the Southern Provinces the traditions of the ancient 
Ming dynasty survived; and an organisation directed to- 
wards the removal of the Manchus and the destruction of 
their entire rule had been maintained with Chinese persist- 
ence, in spite of several futile attempts at insurrection, for 
250 years. 

The same unprogressive but by no means unintelli- 
gent conservatism, based upon the unit of the family, peas- 
ant proprietorship with small cultivation, the universal Con- 
fucian ethic, the religious devotion to ancestry and social 
duty to the community prevailed everywhere. It is also 
generally true that so long as foreigners refrained from 
interfering with Chinese habits and customs, they were re- 



74 The Awakening of Asia 

ceived with kindness and courtesy throughout the Empire 
by the Chinese themselves. Travellers who were mere 
passers-by were more likely to suffer from childish but not 
ill-natured curiosity than from hostile demonstrations, un- 
less they designedly or inadvertently offended native usages, 
or ran counter to local prejudice. There is abundant testi- 
mony to this, before animosity grew up, roused by foreign 
settlers who, with the best of motives, gave the impression 
that they wished to dominate Chinese opinion. 

Besides, although the Boxer uprising is spoken of as if 
all China participated in this great anti-foreign and reac- 
tionary attack, the truth is that only the Northern Prov- 
inces, where the Manchu influence was paramount, took 
an active part in the movement. It is indeed not too much 
to say that though the people held anti-foreign views the 
really intelligent Chinese leaders were against the whole 
agitation. Throughout the great Southern and Western 
Provinces, whence the reconstruction came, the more capa- 
ble Chinese were coming slowly to the conclusion that 
crucial changes were inevitable; and one of the ablest of 
Chinese statesmen, then Ambassador to Great Britain, ex- 
pressed his hope, in a public iAterview, that this cataclysm 
in the affairs of his country would lead to great improve- 
ments: "I hope that financial, educational and judicial 
reforms will be introduced after this crisis is over, and I 
would even say, as a representative of my country as well 
as of my Government, that I hope the Powers will insist 
upon reforms." Thus spoke Lo Feng Lu. A very remark- 
able utterance from a Chinaman holding such an important 
official position, and one which would have cost him very 
dear had the reactionary party been permanently successful. 

Even in the perturbed Northern Provinces, where the 
Boxers had achieved temporary success, certain of the 
Viceroys, both Chinese and Manchu, were far-sighted 
enough to declare against the insurrectionists, to protect 



The Boxer Rising 75 

foreigners from attack, and to give the Allies no excuse 
for extending their campaign of revenge against the peo- 
ple. Thus Yuan-Shi-Kai risked everything by pursuing 
this policy in Shantung, though his Chinese subordinates 
of the same race as himself were many of them bitterly 
opposed to him. Had he not had at his disposal large 
bodies of troops, trained according to European methods, 
upon whom he could rely, his success in keeping his prov- 
ince in order would have been more than doubtful. As it 
was, no foreigner was killed in Shantung, and the Allied 
troops did not molest that province. Similarly, the Man- 
chu, Tuan Fang, who was then temporary Governor of 
Shensi, intervened directly to protect the foreigners and 
sent them, when their lives seemed likely to be endangered, 
under strong escort to places of safety. This he and Yuan- 
Shi-Kai did, although the whole power of the Empress 
Dowager and the Palace was, as they knew, friendly to the 
Society which had organised these outbreaks; and it is 
strong evidence that public spirit and patriotic resistance to 
popular clamour were by no means unknown qualities 
among the Mandarins who have been so indiscriminately 
abused in the West. 

Their conduct, and that of others who ran similar risks 
in order to defend foreigners with whom they could have 
no racial or religious sympathy, contrasts very favourably 
with the conduct of the Allied officials, civil and military, 
who actually ordered fine old temples to be burnt to the 
ground merely because the revolutionists had used them as 
storehouses and barracks. On an impartial survey of the 
insurrection and its suppression, it seems that the Boxers 
and the Allies stood on much the same low plane in the 
matter of humanity and civilisation; but that the Chinese 
authorities frequently displayed characteristics far superior 
to both sets of barbarians under most trying circumstances. 
The devastation of whole districts by the armies of the 



76 The Awakening of Asia 

Allies, the looting, raping, plundering, burning of Peking, 
the frightful barbarity of the Russians in the butcheries of 
Bladovestchenk, and the brutality and greed of the Ger- 
mans at Kiau-Chau will ever remain as another black mark 
against European civilisation in the Far East. 

Not until the great war between Japan and Russia in 
1904-5 did China as a whole begin to understand that 
the day for rejecting the practical effects of European 
knowledge and education was past. The time indeed had 
come for China either tO' learn in the new school, or to 
submit to partition by European Powers, perhaps even to 
domination by the hated and despised Japanese. Barely 
ten years had passed ere the ideas which the genius of the 
Emperor Huang-Hsu had failed to impress upon his peo- 
ple were commonly accepted. In the meantime, the work 
of education and organisation throughout the Southern 
Provinces, with which the name of the much-persecuted 
Sun Yat Sen is most closely associated in Europe, had gone 
on rapidly, in spite of all the efforts of the Court of Peking 
and its emissaries to suppress the propaganda and destroy 
its chief. 

Sun Yat Sen and his followers had recognised for many 
years that thoroughgoing changes were essential to save 
China from dissolution or foreign conquest. Inspired by 
a high conception of what China might do, they steadily 
prepared the conservative mind of the people to accept the 
necessary transformation. They also took advantage of 
the increasing numbers of Chinese students who had gone 
to Europe, America and Japan in order to acquire West- 
ern learning, to imbue them with aspirations of returning 
to their country as helpers in the revolution and reorgan- 
isation, when the state of affairs justified a vigorous attack 
upon the Manchus and the establishment of a new govern- 
ment. 

Circumstances greatly helped reformers and revolu- 



The Boxer Rising 77 

tionists of every school. Russia had for many a long 
year appeared to the Chinese as the most formidable of 
all the European Powers, and the one which best under- 
stood how to make her influence felt. She was always at 
hand, her conquests in Asia had been continuous and ap- 
parently carried out on a systematic plan. By degrees she 
had pressed forward from the west and north, until a 
great railway partly running through Chinese territory 
had been constructed from the Russian Empire In Europe 
to the Russian Empire on the Pacific Ocean. Russia had 
never favoured Christian proselytism within Chinese boun- 
daries. The Greek Church, with all its ardour for con- 
version, had been held back by Russian statesmen from any 
dangerous ventures in favour of spreading that form of 
Christianity in the Flowery Land. There was no friction 
with them, therefore, from Inconsiderate and bootless re- 
ligious zeal, nor had the Russians taken any part in the 
nefarious opium traffic which had procured for the Eng- 
lish such an infamous name. Cruel and ferocious the 
Muscovites had often shown themselves to be. But they 
understood Asiatics and Asiatic ways, many of the Rus-^ 
sian officials being Asiatics themselves. 

So far as the Chinese could see, Russia had been in- 
variably successful, had met with no check In her great 
advance across Asia, had taken the lead in preventing 
Japan from exacting from their country the full terms to 
which she considered herself entitled after the Treaty of 
Shimonosekl, and was then much the strongest nation in 
the Far East. Russia, too, at the close of the Chinese war 
with Japan, had herself proposed a close understanding 
with China and had concluded a preliminary agreement 
with her. Chinese statesmen felt, therefore, that, however 
dangerous Russia might be to them in the future and by 
reason of her recent annexations in the present, that great 
nation could be relied upon to withstand the progress 



78 The Awakening of Asia 

of Japan on the mainland and the final appropriation of 
Korea by these impudent but too successful Japanese is- 
landerSj as they seemed from the Chinese point of view. 

What followed appeared little short of a miracle to 
Chinese Ministers, who, awakening from their torpor and 
foolish over-confidence of the previous decade, thought 
that they now understood how powerless the East was in 
comparison with the West. The first shock to Chinese 
complacency was given when in 1904 the two belligerents, 
Japan and Russia, made common cause in paying not the 
slightest attention to the integrity of Chinese territory. 
China was a neutral in the conflict. She took no part 
whatever in the struggle. Yet Russia and Japan, finding 
it convenient to fight their fight out on Chinese ground, 
calmly did so in their own way and at their own con- 
venience. 

Poor, harmless, unmilitary China could only look on 
powerless while her own provinces were ravaged by the 
contending armies, while her cities were occupied, defend- 
ed, attacked, besieged, regardless of her protests, and the 
sacred tombs of the Manchu Emperors were violated by 
the presence and misbehaviour of Russian and Japanese 
troops. This humihation was bitterly resented. But noth- 
ing could be done. The defenceless, like the absent, are 
always in the wrong. This was bad enough. The victory 
of neither combatant could benefit China; but, of the two 
conflicting nations, the Chinese v/ere naturally more fa- 
vourable to the Russians than to their late conquerors. 
Moreover, they thought Russia was sure to win. The re- 
sult, as all the world knows, was quite the contrary. Japan 
beat Russia. Asia defeated Europe, Then at once it was 
borne in upon the Chinese more forcibly than ever that 
Japan, by adopting European methods of warfare and or- 
ganisation, had assumed the leadership of the Far East. 
The Battle of Mukden and the Treaty of Peace signed at 



The Boxer Rising 79 

Portsmouth, New Hampshire, entirely changed the whole 
face of world-policy for East and West alike. They had 
also completely transformed Chinese policy. 

It was inevitable that Chinese Emperors and Chinese 
statesmen should at last yield to the unerring logic of facts. 
What had been far-seeing but unrealisable statesmanship 
on the part of a monarch ahead of his time became now 
political necessity, even for men of moderate ability. This 
is not to say that the chief advisers of the Manchu Em- 
peror, from 1905 to 1908, were of inferior capacity. Prince 
Chun, Yuan-Shi-Kai, Chan Chih Tung and others were 
far above the average of intelligence. But with the lesson 
of the Boxer rising and the shameful looting of Peking 
behind them, and the startling victory of the Japanese over 
the Russians on Chinese territory right in front of them, 
two facts were thrust upon China which not even the most 
stupid could overlook. An Eastern race adopting Euro- 
pean methods of warfare must inevitably defeat another 
Eastern race which persisted in following the old ways. 
An Eastern race adopting Western methods of warfare 
can even defeat Europeans at their own game. This last 
was the great moral for China of the Russo-Japanese War. 

Therefore, it positively rained Edicts in favour of Eu- 
ropean ideas and the new learning of the West. The revo- 
lution which provoked reaction was followed by reforms 
which engendered revolution. A new spirit arose among 
the people as well as among the Chinese literati and men 
of business. Thenceforward, progress was almost as rapid, 
though not so systematically organised, as that which had 
taken place earlier in Japan. The immense difference in 
area and population, the far greater conservatism of the 
inhabitants, the lack of any military caste to direct the re- 
organisation of the army, the antagonism between the Chi- 
nese and their Manchu rulers, were much more formidable 
obstacles to speedy change than the insurrection of some 



8o The Awakening of Asia 

of the old feudal chiefs against the revived rule of the 
Mikado. 

But what was done was nevertheless most surprising 
and encouraging for the future. In 1905 a Commission 
was set on foot to examine into the administrative sys- 
tems of foreign countries. Representative government, a 
revolution in itself, was to be carefully investigated. On 
September i, 1906, an Edict was issued with the Manchu 
Emperor's sanction, decreeing the estabHshment of a Par- 
liamentary form of government at a date not fixed. In 
November of the same year an Edict went forth to reor- 
ganise the offices of the central administration. A year 
later, November, 1907, it was decided that a single Im- 
perial Assembly, not a double chamber of House of Lords 
and House of Commons, was required. In 1907, also, an 
Advisory Council was established. On August t.'j, 1908, 
an Edict announced the convocation of a Parliament nine 
years later, and on December 3rd the Edict was confirmed. 
In this year the Dowager Empress, who had so' resolutely 
and ruthlessly fought the elaborate scheme of progress 
in reform, died. With her death and the consequent cessa- 
tion of her influence events moved faster still. October, 
1909, saw classes settled for the formation of a Senate 
or Imperial Council. One year more, and the National 
Assembly held its first meeting. This meant the opening 
of a new era for the political and social life of the most 
populous and ancient Empire in the world. 

Thus, in less than six years, still under Manchu domi- 
nation, the whole basis of Chinese rule had been changed 
and any return to the old state of things had been ren- 
dered impossible. Further progress was in fact decreed 
by events. This had been foreseen and prepared for in 
the purely Chinese movement in each of the great prov- 
inces, where Electoral Assemblies had been already estab- 
lished in 1909. Happily, also, the Chinese statesmen and 



The Boxer Rising 8i 

generals and agitators, who organised this rapid transfor- 
mation, were wise enough to recognise that popular de- 
mands for revolution must in such stirring times be backed 
up by disciplined forces which could be relied upon to 
support the new government. The Manchus had no chance 
of success against the Chinese levies trained on the Euro- 
pean plan. So in 191 1 the Tartar dynasty, which had been 
masters of China for nearly three hundred years, was got 
rid of much more easily than could have been expected, 
and with an amount of bloodshed far inferior to that which 
has attended infinitely less important developments in Euro- 
pean countries. 

"China for the Chinese," the cry which had been raised 
by the Boxers, the aspiration which found voice on the 
death of the Empress Dowager, became now the rallying 
cry of progressive China all over the Empire. Once more 
— for the twenty-second time, it is said — the Tartar in- 
vaders had been deposed and their supporters were being 
sent back to colonise the uncultivated lands of the north. 
All this was done with the sympathy and good will of the 
Western Powers and Japan. The shameful policy of the 
partition of China which had found favour in Europe for 
years before and was thinly disguised by the declaration 
of "spheres of influence" for this or that commercial brig- 
and from the West, aided by the still more formidable 
brigand close at hand, met with a check which it is to be 
hoped will develop into permanent and effective resistance. 
A consolidated China of the Chinese, with a sufficient 
army, an adequate navy, and continuous development of 
her internal resources, would speedily exercise a propor- 
tionate influence on the politics of the Pacific. But, to en- 
sure safety from the predatory nations by which she is 
encompassed, the Republic must finally abandon her policy 
of unpreparedness and non-resistance to attack. By self- 
defence alone can this magnificent country, with its splen- 



82 The Awakening of Asia 

did resources in men and material, be secured against at- 
tempts at domination from without — attempts more dan- 
gerous to her independence than any by which she has 
been previously threatened. 

When first the possibility of the ejection of the Man- 
chus and the establishment of a self-governing China de- 
veloped into a practical policy, many European sym- 
pathisers thought that a revival of the Ming dynasty of 
the South might be desirable, if the direct descendants 
of that Chinese Imperial family could be found. Those 
descendants were known, but none of them was at all quali- 
fied for the position of Emperor. Nevertheless, the view 
was so strongly held that only an Emperor ruling from 
Peking could hold the newly-emancipated China together 
that it was some time before the idea of a Chinese Republic, 
steadfastly advocated from the first by Sun Yat .Sen and 
his associates, found general favour. Republics had not 
been so generally successful elsewhere that they could be 
regarded as a form of government suited to a highly con- 
servative Eastern nation which had lived under successive 
Imperial dynasties for thousands of years. A Republic of 
a democratic kind presupposes a democracy, and democ- 
racy, in the Western sense, is unknown in the East. The 
entire absence of hereditary nobility had never involved as 
its consequence democratic control in any shape. Com- 
petitive examinations for official positions, even where they 
were conducted without any suspicion of bribery or fa- 
vouritism, or dominant influence or substitution, were en- 
tirely different from popular nomination or election. That 
China therefore should adopt Republican institutions, of 
which there was at the time only one established example 
in Europe on a large scale, appeared almost inconceivable 
to old residents at the Treaty Ports or at Peking. 

Nevertheless the influence of Sun Yat Sen and his 
school prevailed, and Sun Yat Sen might himself have 



The Boxer Rising 83 

been the first President, But he gave way to Yuan-Shi- 
Kai, the able and fearless Viceroy of Shantung in the Boxer 
days, who had armed and trained an efficient Chinese force. 
The unfortunate results of this appointment to the Re- 
public and Yuan himself were seen later. For Yuan-Shi- 
Kai, while a genuine Chinaman, a reformer, and a pro- 
tector of foreigners, was still of the old school of Man- 
darins, though strongly indoctrinated with the new mili- 
tary ideas. He was arbitrary, tyrannical and self-indul- 
gent, and, as he gained increased power, his conception of 
his position as President differed little from that which a 
reactionary Manchu would have held under similar circum- 
stances. 

But meanwhile — ^before as well as immediately after 
the actual revolution and overthrow of the Manchus — the 
whole Chinese system had been modified in the most sur- 
prising way. Change of social habits, abandonment of an- 
cient customs, uprooting of old-world ceremonies, appli- 
cation to educational purposes of religious buildings long 
devoted to various kinds of worship, are all infinitely more 
difficult to bring about than alterations in political forms 
or the removal of an obnoxious dynasty. In these matters, 
however, China, when once she began to move, progressed 
with even greater celerity than Japan a generation before. 
Thus the unpractical old rules in regard to education, even 
less suited to modern ideas than the antiquated devotion 
to Greek and Roman literature which still prevails in Eng- 
lish public schools and universities, were entirely relaxed 
from one end of China to the other. The pressing neces- 
sity for acquiring Western knowledge, while not giving 
up the inculcation of the noble truths of Confucian mor- 
ality, was imposed from above and readily accepted below. 
In September, 1905, an Edict was promulgated which did 
away with the old method of examinations from 1906 on- 
wards. The new system established was essentially mod- 



84 The Awakening of Asia 

em in every way. Thousands of temples were now used 
as schoolrooms, while the people, who would formerly have 
resented such use as an outrage, made little or no objection. 
In spite of the large numbers of Chinese who had gone for 
instruction to Europe and America and the many thousands 
who had resorted to Japan for the same purpose, the great 
difficulty was to find enough Chinese teachers to meet the 
demand for the thorough inculcation of the new ideas. 

The extreme Chinese deference to authority, which had 
hindered the advance of knowledge and fostered a preju- 
diced conservatism for ages before, told strongly in the 
other direction now that the rulers of the country were 
convinced that it was unsafe to stand upon the old ways 
and issued mandates for a complete change to the new. 
This same Confucian law of implicit obedience to paternal 
injunctions from above rendered the adoption of the sys- 
tem recommended from on high far easier than would 
have been possible with a people less subservient to family 
rule and official domination. When the crystallised moulds 
of educational instruction were even partially broken any- 
thing became possible in the China of the present and near 
future. A highly intelligent race was all at once relieved 
from the intellectual bondage of centuries and entered again 
upon that upward and onward career towards the knowl- 
edge and control over nature which had once enabled China 
to lead the civilised world, and may not impossibly do so 
again. For the Chinese of old were above all originators 
and men of initiative. The Japanese, the Koreans, the 
Malayans and others did but follow in the footsteps of the 
great Chinese discoverers and inventors, who had boldly 
and vigorously blazed the trail for them through the vast 
forests and dense undergrowth of human ignorance. Eu- 
rope itself owes much of its knowledge to the patient work 
of the Chinese of long ago, whose descendants we, the 
whites of to-day, have too often despised. 



The Boxer Rising 85 

The fresh start was, as already said, accompanied by 
a new view of military training. The soldier, formerly 
contemned as a non-worker in spite of his skill in arms, 
has become all at once an important person, like his rival 
in those countries where peace was not counted the essen- 
tial thing. If universities for peaceful study are being 
formed all over the Empire, military academies with the 
latest curriculum for scientific slaughter have likewise been 
established in hot haste. Imitating in this respect the worst 
and most unhealthy methods of the West, barracks filled 
with soldiers are making their appearance in many of the 
great cities. The superstitious grotesquerie of Manchu war- 
fare which had its full share even in the war against Japan 
and constituted a noticeable weapon in the arsenal of the 
Boxers has disappeared for ever. The grimaces and yells, 
the hideous masks and bows and arrows of the recent past 
have given place to systematic European drill, and the men 
are armed with the best of European weapons. "Arsenals 
are to be seen at every great centre; cannon and all the 
munitions of war are being made within the empire. This 
is not the case at one town merely, or at two, but at every 
capital. . . . The whole empire seems to be arming, not in 
extraordinary haste but with thoroughness, with dogged- 
ness and with resources with which no European nation 
can compare." These observations of an unprejudiced 
American traveller may be somewhat exaggerated. China 
cannot pretend at present to stand as a military power on 
the same plane as Japan or England or America. But the 
possibilities of the future under her own development, or 
under Japanese leadership, cannot be contemplated without 
serious reflection, or even apprehension. 

How long have Europeans laughed at the idiotic com- 
placency with which Chinese women crippled themselves 
for life by compressing their feet into a formless mass, 
while overlooking the foolish and harmful fashion once 



86 The Awakening of Asia 

adopted by elegant Western women in constricting their 
own waists? But it had become a fashion consecrated by 
the use of centuries and rendered more difficult to over- 
come by the habitual confinement of Chinese women of 
good station. As hard, apparently, therefore, to uproot 
within a few years as to induce the Jews to part with their 
holy rite of circumcision. 

The women themselves were devoted to their own cus- 
tomary lameness. They regarded as barbarians those of 
their own sex in Western China itself who refused thus 
to disquaHfy themselves for some of the most important 
duties of life. Never would they unbind their own feet 
or permit their female children to stalk along like men in 
the open street. Yet between 1905 and 191 1, even before 
the revolution, that is to say, in province after province 
this ancient practice of binding the feet came to an end. 
Bound feet were becoming the exception. Girls who never 
went out now troop to school in some districts. They are 
beginning to read and even to think for themselves. The 
elaborate painting of the face which was the rule is also 
fading out. In their sexual arrangements some liberty is 
being secured, so that girls may refuse husbands chosen 
for them, if necessary. The unbinding of the feet is symp- 
tomatic of release in other directions. The emancipation 
of woman is in many districts more than keeping pace 
with the emancipation of the men. The repression was 
much greater: the freedom gained is relatively more com- 
plete. 

Similarly with the queue. That was a symbol of 
Manchu supremacy enforced by the Tartar conquerors 
and Emperors. But, in the course of generations, the 
subjugated Chinamen had become accustomed to and proud 
of this method of wearing their "back hair." Even in 
distant colonies under the British flag, where they were 
perfectly free, had they wished, to cut off this long ap- 



The Boxer Rising 87 

pendage, so dear to our own sailors of old, the Chinese 
immigrants never dispensed with their queues. Their pres- 
ence was as familiar to them and as little irksome as their 
use of chopsticks. Yet, in this case, also, revolt prevailed 
over custom and fashion. With the disappearance of the 
Manchus and the inauguration of the Republic, the wearing 
of pigtails gradually became less general and has now been 
given up almost everywhere. Recognised as due to Man- 
chu usurpation, it was discarded as an evidence of the vic- 
tory of China herself over the Tartar invaders, and some- 
thing which belittled them in the eyes of the new commer- 
cial foreigners who were pressing in upon her from the 
sea. 

Thus Europeans and Americans have in every direc- 
tion to deal with a new and an awakened China. Educa- 
tion, social customs, military organisation, economic ad- 
vance, racial isolation are all in process of fundamental 
transformation. Yet, though, as will be seen, they are 
adopting Western material improvements and methods of 
development on a scale and over an extent of country 
which amazes the most sanguine, all admit that they will 
never welcome Europeans who settle among them. Like 
the Japanese, they will make use of foreign knowledge as 
far as may be convenient, but only upon their own terms. 
They see very clearly that, however much Europeans may 
be in advance of the Chinese in material growth, in other 
respects the Western Barbarians of the Opium Wars and 
the Peking plunderings are Western Barbarians still. They 
on their side continue to regard the Chinese as an inferior 
people, and treat them, wherever they can or dare, as in- 
ferior people to-day. 

An aristocratic English clergyman, now a bishop, went 
to China, filled with that consummate assurance which so 
endears the Anglo-Saxon to cultivated Celestials, whose an- 
cestors were a great and civilised people while his forbears 



88 The Awakening of Asia 

were prowling amid the forests of Northern Europe half- 
clad. He went — think of it — in order to convince the in- 
habitants of that country not only that cannon and rifles 
are more effective weapons than bows and arrows, and rail- 
ways and motor-cars preferable to palanquins, but that he 
himself could teach them a far higher Asiatic religion than 
any they had yet embraced. 

The simple fact, observe, that Christianity has been 
taught in China for more than three hundred years to very 
little purpose, by men who had made themselves masters 
of the language, had adapted themselves to the usages of the 
people, and by their tact, scientific acquirements and ca- 
pacity for administration once nearly obtained control of 
the entire Empire, does not in the least dash our self-con- 
stituted apostle's sublime self-confidence. He knows not 
a word of Chinese himself, and has little experience in the 
country, yet by his persistence he forces some of the most 
important of the official class to "argue" with him on ab- 
struse points of his own . difficult and elaborate creed. 
Imagine a Chinese bonze getting the Viceroy of India, the 
Viceroy of Ireland and the ablest "literati" from the Brit- 
ish Universities to devote hours on end to the discussion 
of Confucianism and Laotseism, interrupted only by an 
admirable luncheon provided by the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury's exquisite cook! What sort of reception would the 
Chinese devotee really encounter? It is not pleasant to think 
of. Yet this is what befell the reverend gentleman in in- 
fidel China, and here is his account of his treatment by his 
entertainers : 

"The courtesy of the Chinese officials, the charm of their 
manner, the mixture of dignity and good-nature which is 
such a characteristic of their behaviour makes controversy 
with them delightful. I do not think anyone who has known 
them can be but greatly attracted by their courtesy and kind- 
ness. All Chinese are courteous, but the Chinese literati, 



The Boxer Rising 89 

perhaps naturally, greatly excel their fellow-countrymen in 
this charming characteristic." The kindly arrogance of all 
this, superimposed on a vehement argument in favour of 
establishing an English Christian University in China, 
never occurs to this amiable traveller. Yet in other direc- 
tions he is able to discern and comment upon the disagree- 
able qualities of his own countrymen with some perspicac- 
ity and judgment. Thus he is really a little shocked when 
he discovers that in Shanghai — a great Chinese city, by the 
way — foreigners have so completely obtained control of the 
pubHc gardens that a notice is put up on their behalf : "No 
Chinese shall be admitted except servants in attendance on 
foreigners." Cultivated Chinese officials of the type with 
whom the English ecclesiastic had held his controversy, as 
well as highly educated Chinese merchants and scholars, 
are all excluded ! Moreover, so entirely are foreigners mas- 
ters of the municipality that there is not a single Chinese 
representative on the City Council. China for the Chinese 
indeed ! 

The incongruity of this sort of conduct seems to have 
struck an American observer even more forcibly. He is 
looking on at another great Chinese city with its European 
settlement, and he thus invites his readers to look with 
him: "Contrast the forts, foreign forts, on the wall, the 
hostages given to foreigners, who not only claim to dwell 
in the Manchu city, but oblige part of the wall to be pro- 
hibited to Chinese, lest the foreign settlement be overlooked ! 
Imagine a section of Washington taken possession of by 
Moroccans and Tripolitans, with Turks and Arabs and 
Persians settling alongside, Oriental soldiers garrisoning it, 
free-born Americans bidden keep away lest the European 
susceptibilities be hurt ! Would America tolerate that long, 
after her new army was in working order? Look down 
yonder. At the foot of the wall is a squad of cadets from 
the naval academy practising bugle calls. Who are those 



90 The Awakening of Asia 

yellow faces in Western dress? Soldiers with modem 
weapons. And who are these in naval imiform? Police 
of a new type." That is the sort of vision, following upon 
all that has gone before, which must arouse serious re- 
flection in the most superficial mind. 

So one would imagine, at least. Yet only a few years 
have passed since a highly intelligent Englishman, who 
is accepted as an authority on all Eastern questions, wrote 
as if China must always be talked down to by Europeans. 
It seemed to him that if Europeans grew favourable to 
China after continual residence in the country, it must be 
due to some injurious influence which the Chinese exert 
over those who come habitually in contact with them ! There 
again is still the note of Chinese inferiority. For this rea- 
son, no matter what view the Chinese themselves may take, 
they are to be permanently dictated to in their own coun- 
try by the foreigners on the spot. Missionaries, for ex- 
ample, have been, directly or indirectly, the cause of much 
of the trouble which has arisen against the white settlers 
outside the Treaty Ports. It is quite possible indeed that 
one of the most potent causes of the Boxer rising was the 
incredibly foolish Edict, issued at the same time with other 
important but premature decrees, which declared that Catho- 
lic bishops should receive the same honours and be accorded 
the same ceremonies as Chinese officials of the highest rank. 
This was due to continuous and threatening pressure ex- 
erted by the French authorities at Peking and their clerical 
friends at home. Nothing could be more calculated to 
arouse bad feeling. Yet the tone of the English writer 
cited above, whose views on India are vehemently reac- 
tionary, is scarcely less objectionable than the French de- 
mand for exceptional recognition of the ecclesiastical en- 
voys of the Pope. "The missionaries have a right to go to 
China and to China they will continue to go, however un- 
desirable their presence there may be considered." That 



The Boxer Rising 91 

is the opinion of Sir Valentine Chirol. And he goes far- 
ther. Missionaries are the pioneers of commerce and for- 
eign influence. "Missionary work in China is not only a 
proselytising but also a humanising agency, and every mis- 
sionary establishment is a centre from which civilising in- 
fluences radiate over the whole area of its operations." 

But that is just what patriotic and farseeing China- 
men understand perfectly well from their own point of 
view. They understand, that is to say, precisely what 
"civilising influences" — ^white man's "kultur" — mean in the 
East; that, however fine a creed Christianity may be in it- 
self, it is unsuited to China under existing conditions and 
is liable, by the zeal of its apostles, to rouse exactly those 
misunderstandings and stir up those animosities which it 
is most desirable to avoid. Europeans as a whole, but par- 
ticularly the English and Americans, are especially strong 
on the dignity and freedom of the individual as an in- 
dividual. He stands out as something by himself, having 
rights and duties apart from his family, and independent 
even of the community. His future salvation after death 
depends upon himself, and his relations to his ancestors 
have long since been obliterated or merged in a general re- 
spect for the past. The Chinese have no such ideas as these, 
they regard them as improper and immoral, and wish to have 
nothing to do with them as guiding. their conduct through 
life or in death. The only success achieved by Cl^ristianity 
in China has been gained by throwing overboard some of 
the most cherished tenets of the faith which is now domi- 
nant in Europe, and by recognising ancestor worship, the 
supremacy of the family and unshakable duty to the com- 
munity as the essentials of civilised existence. Here, once 
more, is it probable that, since China is becoming aware 
of her own strength and is rising out of the stagnation of 
ages, she will extend welcome and ensure protection to 



92 The Awakening of Asia 

ecclesiastical agitators who, sincere as they may be, intro- 
duce all the elements of internal conflict? 

The removal of the Manchu dynasty and the establish- 
ment of the Chinese Republic in 191 1 was a revolution 
which only gave sanction to results already achieved and, 
by constituting a free Federation of the Provinces, prepared 
the way for further progress. The leaders of this almost 
peaceful transformation were in favour of moving the 
capital from Peking to the South. This policy was favoured 
by the Republicans for many reasons. Not only was Peking 
the Tartar capital, whence the Chinese themselves had been 
ruled by foreign barbarians for many generations, but it 
was too far from the centre of the country and had lost 
much of its political and national importance owing to the 
wholesale annexations and leasings of territory by Russia 
and Japan during the past twenty years. It was found, 
nevertheless, that the change, however desirable, could not 
then be made. Yuan-Shi-Kai, who at first received the 
support of all the European Powers and was not opposed 
by Japan, held control of the land forces. His appointment 
as President of the Republic practically settled the question 
that Peking should remain the capital and centre of ad- 
ministrative authority so long as he held the office of Presi- 
dent. 

It soon appeared that this masterful personage was al- 
most the worst republican who could have been chosen for 
the post. Trading upon the ignorance of resident Euro- 
peans of the great changes which were talcing place all 
round them; securing the financial help of the Great Pow- 
ers to the extent of many millions sterling, in spite of the 
protest of the Republican Assembly; surrounding himself 
as soon as he could with some of the most despicable Chinese 
agents of the old regime and holding control of his army by 
strong martial law, Yuan-Shi-Kai constituted himself a 
dictator of the type of Porfirio Diaz in Mexico or Enver 



The Boxer Rising 93 

Pasha in Turkey. He was more corrupt and more brutal 
even than these wretches. And he was favoured, Hke them, 
by foreign financiers. They wanted railways, loans, min- 
ing concessions and so on. Yuan-Shi-Kai, like his first 
patron, Li Hung Chang, wanted money and power and the 
means of extravagance and debauchery. These he could ob- 
tain by the aid of his foreign patrons. 

It was a sad personal deterioration, and the leaders 
of the republican party, Hwang Hsiu and Sun Yat Sen, 
both real patriots, the one a soldier and the other a states- 
man and a philosopher, made a great mistake when they 
gave way to Yuan at the beginning of his mischievous 
Presidential career. A reign of terror began. All the old 
machinery of delation, torture and execution, which had 
been set in motion by the Dowager Empress, was furbished 
up afresh and put to full use by Yuan. His opponents were 
forced to flee the country to save their lives. Hwang and 
Sun Yat Sen took refuge in Japan, while Yuan pursued his 
course for a time unchecked. The foreigners in China still 
backed Yuan alike locally and in the Press at home. Des- 
potic rule was necessary, they averred, for the benefit of the 
Chinese themselves. 

Happily for the Republic and for the future of China, 
Yuan, not contented with the substance of despotic power, 
yearned for its shadow as well. He wished to establish a 
new dynasty at Peking, of which he and his son should be- 
come the first and second Emperors. That was too much 
for the new spirit of the Chinese. Revolt followed upon 
revolt, province after province seceded from Yuan's Presi- 
dency. Opposition sprang up from every quarter. This 
resistance was an even more remarkable evidence of the 
growth of sound public opinion among these hundreds of 
millions of people than the expulsion of the Manchus. 
Though Yuan drew back from his attempt to ascend the 



94 The Awakening of Asia 

Imperial throne, his failure was complete and his death 
probably came at a fortunate time for himself. 

Notwithstanding the outbreaks in various localities 
and the disposition of some of the provinces to maintain 
an independence scarcely compatible with the federative 
policy of the Republic, the founders of the new Govern- 
ment, and in particular its chief guiding spirit. Sun Yat 
Sen, are confident that this form of political organisation 
is best suited to the character and disposition of their coun- 
trymen and will succeed. Unquestionably, if the Republic 
can be maintained, with sufficient military and moral back- 
ing to ensure freedom from external interference, this will 
be best for China herself and for those who have the closest 
relations with her. That Sun Yat Sen and many of his 
friends know Europe and America well and that leading 
military and naval commanders share their opinions as to 
the policy to be adopted, gives great hope for the future. 
The danger of the success of further European designs of 
partition is reduced, first by the development of China her- 
self, next by the weakening of the Western Powers engaged 
in the Great War, and then by the certainty that any at- 
tempt at interference by force or threat of force would at 
once bring in Japan on the side of China. 

The ambitions of this last formidable nation are the 
worst danger that threatens China's independence, and 
Chinese statesmen must already be only too well aware of 
this. The World War has strengthened Japan's position 
as regards all other Powers to an extent that is not as 
yet fully comprehended in Europe. Confidence in Japan's 
loyalty and pacific intentions is, in my opinion, entirely mis- 
placed. Japan is the Germany of the East, and China is 
only the first nation to experience how much she has learnt 
from her European prototype in statecraft and strategy. 
This will be seen more clearly when I treat of the general 
policy of Japan before and during the war. Those European 



The Boxer Rising 95 

statesmen and publicists, therefore, who were foolish enough 
to aid and abet Yuan-Shi-Kai in his nefarious plottings 
against the Chinese Republic, and thus weakened the Re- 
public's capacity to resist pressure from without, are largely- 
responsible for the following demands categorically made 
by Japan upon China after the capture of Tsing-tau and the 
occupation of Kiau-Chau. Germany was very soon and 
very easily disposed of in the Far East, and a small English 
brigade from India took part in the assault upon the 
German fortress. But no sooner was Japan in possession 
than China found that the important port and district which 
had been "leased" to the Empire at a distance was now ex- 
clusively at the disposal of the still more dangerous Empire 
close by, whatever promises the latter might have previously 
made. Directly Japan knew that the European nations were 
involved in so huge and lasting a war that it gave her a 
free hand in the East, and the moment she found that the 
United States neither would nor could check her, she made 
the following amazing demands upon China: 

Jan. 18, 191 5. 

"The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government, 
being desirous of maintaining the general peace in Eastern 
Asia and further strengthening the friendly relations and 
good neighbourhood existing between the two nations, agree 
to the following articles : — 

I. 

"Article i. The Chinese Government engages to give full 
assent to all matters upon which the Japanese Government 
may hereafter agree with the German Government relating 
to all rights, interests and concessions which Germany, by 
virtue of treaties or otherwise, possesses in relation to the 
Province of Shantung. 

"Article 2. The Chinese Government engages that within 
the Province of Shantung and along its coast, no territory or 



96 The Awakening of Asia 

island will be ceded or leased to a third Power under any 
pretext. 

"Article 3. The Chinese Government consents to Japan's 
building a railway from Chef 00 or Lungkow to join the Kalo- 
chou-Tsinanfu Railway. 

"Article 4. The Chinese Government engages, in the in- 
terest of trade and for the residence of foreigners, to open 
by herself as soon as possible certain important cities and 
ports in the Province of Shantung as Commercial Ports. What 
places shall be opened are to be jointly decided upon in a sepa- 
rate agreement. 

II. 

"The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government, 
since the Chinese Government has always acknowledged the 
special position enjoyed by Japan in South Manchui^ia and 
Eastern Inner Mongolia, agree to the following articles : — 

"Article l. The two Contracting Powers mutually agree 
that the term of the lease of Port Arthur and Dalny and the 
terra of the lease of the South Manchuria Railway and tlie 
Antung Mukden Railway shall be extended to cover a period 
of 99 years. 

"Article 2. Japanese subjects in South Manchuria and 
Eastern Inner Mongolia shall have the right to lease or own 
land required either for erecting suitable buildings for trade 
and manufacture or for farming. 

"Article 3. Japanese subjects shall be free to reside and 
travel in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia and 
to engage in business and manufacture of any kind whatso- 
ever. 

"Article 4. The Chinese Government agrees to grant to 
Japanese subjects the right of opening mines in South Man- 
churia and Eastern Inner Mongolia. As regards what mines 
are to be opened, they shall be decided upon jointly. 

"Article 5. The Chinese Government agrees that in re- 
spect of the (two) cases mentioned herein below the Japanese 
Government's consent shall be first obtained before action is 
taken : — 



The Boxer Rising 97 

(a) Whenever permission is granted to the subject of 
a third Power to build a railway or to make a loan with 
a third Power for the purpose of building a railway in 
South Manchuria or Eastern Inner Mongolia. 

(b) Whenever a loan is to be made with a third Power 
pledging the local taxes of South Manchuria or Eastern 
Inner Mongolia, 

"Article 6. The Chinese Government agrees that if the 
Qiinese Government employs political, financial or military 
advisers in South Manchuria or Eastern Inner Mongolia, the 
Japanese Government shall be first consulted. 

"Article 7. The Chinese Government agrees that the con- 
trol and management of the Kisiu-Changchun Railway shall be 
handed over to the Japanese Government for a term of 99 
years dating from the signing of this agreement. 

III. 

"The Japanese and Chinese Governments seeing that Jap- 
anese financiers and the Hanyehping Company have close re- 
lations with each other at present, and desiring that the 
common interests of the two nations shall be advanced, agree 
to the following articles : — 

"Article i. The two contracting parties mutually agree 
that when the opportune moment arrives the Hanyehping 
Company shall be made a joint concern of the two nations, 
and they further agree that, without the previous consent of 
Japan, China shall not by her own act dispose of the rights 
and property of whatsoever nature of the said Company nor 
cause the said Company to dispose freely of the same. 

"Article 2. The Chinese Government agrees that all mines 
in the neighbourhood of those owned by the Hanyehping 
Company shall not be permitted, without the consent of the 
said Company, to be worked by other persons outside of the 
said Company; and further agrees that if it is desired to 
carry out any undertaking which it is apprehended may di- 
rectly or indirectly affect the interests of the said Company, 
the consent of the said Company shall first be obtained. 



98 The Awakening of Asia 

IV. 

"The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government, 
with the object of effectively preserving the territorial integ- 
rity of dina, agree to the following special article : — 

"The Chinese Government engages not to cede or lease to 
a third Power any harbour or bay or island along the coast 
of China. 

V. 

"Article I. The Chinese Central Government shall em- 
ploy influential Japanese as advisers in political, financial and 
military affairs. 

"Article 2. Japanese hospitals, churches and schools in 
the interior of China shall be granted the right of owning land. 

"Article 3. Inasmuch as the Japanese Government and 
the Chinese Government have had many cases of dispute be- 
tween Japanese and Chinese police which caused no little mis- 
understanding, it is for this reason necessary that the police 
departments of important places (in China) shall be jointly 
administered by Japanese and Chinese or that the police de- 
partments of these places shall employ numerous Japanese so 
that they may at the same time help to plan for the improve- 
ment of the Chinese police service. 

"Article 4. China shall purchase from Japan a fixed 
amount of munitions of war (say 50 per cent, or more of 
what is needed by the Chinese Government) or that there 
shall be established in China a jointly- worked Sino-Japanese 
arsenal. Japanese experts are to be employed and Japanese 
material to be purchased. 

"Article 5. China agrees to grant to Japan the right of 
constructing a railway connecting Wuchang with Kiukiang 
and Nanchang, another line between Nanchang and Hang- 
chow, and another between Nanchang and Chao-Chow. 

"Article 6. If China needs foreign capital to work mines, 
build railways and construct harbour works (including dock- 
yards) in the Province of Fukien Japan shall be first con- 
sulted. 



The Boxer Rising 99 

"Article 7. China agrees that Japanese subjects shall have 
the right of missionary propaganda in China." 

These terms carry their own meaning on the face of 
them. If accepted in full they involved the subjugation; 
of China to Japan in every respect. China thereafter could 
move neither hand nor foot within her own borders or in 
relation to foreign nations without Japan's consent. That 
possible domination which the European Powers had fore- 
seen and prevented in 1895 would have been quietly ac- 
complished in 191 5, twenty years later. Some who know 
the Far East well hinted at the time that this extraordinary 
move was made, not with the expectation that it would be 
successful at the moment, but as a notice to the world at 
large that "Asia for the Asiatics" had developed into some- 
thing more than a cry. Also, it was a method of declaring 
that Japan's interests in the new Republic were greater 
than those of all the rest of the nations put together. The 
matter, as will be seen later, passed almost unnoticed in 
Europe, and was carefully kept out of sight by the Govern- 
ment of Japan's chief Ally in the West — England. 

These terms have never been formally accepted by China, 
but Japan has acted for the last three years almost as if 
they had been ratified. Further, by the Treaties of May, 
191 5, between China and Japan, the latter Power obtained 
all the advantages the Germans formerly possessed in the 
Province of Shantung; and no territory or island within this 
Province "will be leased or ceded to any foreign Power 
under any pretext." The whole of Kiau-Chau Bay is to 
be opened as a Commercial Port, and Japan has the right to 
a concession under her exclusive jurisdiction. In regard 
to South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia, their 
railways, jurisdiction, etc., as well as Port Arthur and 
Dalny and the mining areas, Japan gained practically all 
she asked for. 



100 The Awakening of Asia 

The only one of the Powers whose remonstrance on 
the subject has been published, and that almost as if it were 
an unimportant matter, was the United States, whose des- 
patch, sent both to China and Japan, in May, 191 5, ran 
as follows: 

"In view of the circumstances of the negotiations which 
have taken place or which are now pending between the 
Government of China and the Government of Japan and 
the agreements which have been reached and the results 
thereof, the Government of the United States has the hon- 
our to notify the Government of the Chinese Republic that 
it cannot recognise any agreement or undertaking which 
has been entered into between the Governments of China 
and Japan impairing the treaty rights of the United States 
and its citizens in China, the political or territorial integrity 
of the Republic of China or the international policy com- 
monly known as the Open Door policy." 

Whether eventually this will have an effect upon Japan- 
ese policy remains to be seen. So far the position between 
China and Japan in relation to the original demands re- 
mains as stated. And, indeed, the situation is still more 
serious than it is described to be above. Japan, beyond all 
question, has been using her position as the Ally of the 
Western Powers and the United States to obtain final con- 
trol not merely of the province of Shantung, which the cap- 
ture of Tsing-tau and the demand for the Tsing-tau- 
Tsinan railway puts entirely at her mercy, but to place the 
whole of China under Japanese domination. This policy of 
interpenetration of the vast territory of the Chinese Re- 
public is being carried out by an admixture of financial, 
diplomatic and military aggression — there is no other de- 
scription of Japan's proceedings which will meet the case. 
The demands of January i8th, 191 5, are being forced upon 
China in far more stringent shape than those which at first 
were presented by Japan to the European Powers as the 



The Boxer Rising loi 

real text. Thus the heavy loans at fully 8 per cent, interest 
forced upon the President of the Republic, and the stipula- 
tions by which they were accompanied in regard to rail- 
ways, transport, general trade and munitions, are quite on 
the lines laid down by German banks before the war, when 
loans were granted for the purpose of gaining industrial 
and commercial supremacy in any country. 

But there is scarcely any need for these loans which, 
from the economic standpoint, Japan is really in no condi- 
tion to make. Her diplomatic demands, if supported by 
military occupation of Chinese territory, are quite suffi- 
cient to give Japan the absolute mastery of the hundreds 
of millions of people and all the vast resources of the 
Flowery Land which she has coveted ever since 1894-5. 
''China for the Japanese" is the policy now being pur- 
sued with a relentless persistence which all the forces of the 
Allies may be unable to check, unless they at once collective- 
ly call a halt to the Government of Japan and follow up 
protest and remonstrance by vigorous action. 

The Chinese know well what is being prepared for them. 
They are quite well aware that while the Allies have been 
defeating the Germany of Europe, China is being sacrificed 
to the possible Germany of Asia. We are told in a Japan- 
ese official organ that "the solution of China's problem is 
of great importance to Japan and has little to do with Great 
Britain." That is plain speaking, certainly, in regard to a 
Power with which a Treaty is in existence formally guar- 
anteeing equal rights in China. The "true" solution is pro- 
pounded by the writer when he advocates, over and above 
compliance with the twenty-one demands : the abolition of 
the Republican form of government; Japanese adminis- 
trators to the number of several thousands in all the im- 
portant posts, exercising complete control over China's 
diplomatic administration and mihtary affairs; Japanese 



102 The Awakening of Asia 

schools throughout China; a Treaty to be concluded embrac- 
ing all these points. 

The effect of Japanese policy, when carried through to 
completion, will be nothing short of the absorption of the 
whole of China into the sphere of Japanese influence. Even 
the advance of the Japanese troops into Siberia is already 
being made use of in order to strengthen the claims of 
Japan to permanent control of the entire Eastern portion of 
that great province. 

A further brief summary of what is being achieved by 
this systematic invasion of China on the same lines that were 
followed in regard to Korea may open the eyes of Great 
Britain, the United States and France, the three European 
Powers now most closely interested — Russia being incap- 
able of definite action for some time to come — to the very 
serious danger that may shortly confront Europe in the 
Far East. Of course, if China were welcoming Japanese 
control and Japanese rule as beneficial to the Chinese them- 
selves Europeans could only accept that position, though it 
is in direct contravention of all existing Treaties. But, 
notoriously, this is not the case. The Chinese distrust 
and dislike the Japanese and have not the slightest desire 
to see Japan handling their vast population, in order 
to extend still farther the ambitious plans of the most im- 
portant Japanese statesmen. 

Here is what is being aimed at and will be obtained, 
unless European Powers come to the aid of China. First, 
the highly important Province of Shantung, so situated that, 
with the command of its ports and its existing railway con- 
nections in Japanese hands, it becomes a permanent, menac- 
ing threat to the independence of Northern China. In place 
of Germany, with her military and naval bases thousands 
of miles away, China will have now to face an Asiatic Pow- 
er with its military and naval bases close at hand ; with an 
army already in occupation of very important strategical 



The Boxer Rising 103 

posts, and with a knowledge of Chinese conditions and 
Chinese poHtics which no European country can hope to 
rival. 

But this is only a beginning. The whole of South Man- 
churia and Eastern Mongolia, magnificent recruiting 
grounds for the Japanese army, with fine resources of their 
own, would become, to all intents and purposes, integral 
portions of the Japanese Empire on the mainland. Then 
the Valley of the Yang-tse-Kiang, with its enormous min- 
eral wealth, and incalculable possibilities of economic and 
social development, would pass exclusively into the hands 
of the Japanese. The position thus acquired could not but 
strengthen enormously the whole Japanese plan of com- 
mercial, industrial and administrative control. For, once in 
occupation of this great region, Japan would be able to cut 
China in two and foment systematically the differences be- 
tween Southern and Northern China, already existing, un- 
til she could come in as the "saviour" of both from interne- 
cine anarchy. 

China, by herself, moreover, will be deprived of all 
possible chance of resistance. Japan takes care of that. 
Modern war is a function of industry. The industries of 
peace must at once be transformed into industries for war. 
Where this is not possible munitions must be brought in 
from without. Russia is a crucial example of the truth 
of that. China, if let alone, would, almost certainly, in 
view of dangers ahead, set to work to establish important 
war industries of her own. This, in fact, is what she has 
already begun to do. But this policy on the part of China, 
if pushed farther, might endanger* Japan's coming (Su- 
premacy. Therefore, it is to be enacted, under these claims 
from the Island Empire, that Japan shall have sole con- 
trol over all the munitions of war that China may need. 

Then there is the provision and control of police over 
large districts of China. This is of great importance, in 



104 The Awakening of Asia 

order to maintain peace and provide prosperity for vast 
populations. So these police are to be not Chinese but 
Japanese. Obviously, such police would be entitled to bear 
arms, for the purpose of defending themselves and other 
people : a peaceful army of permanent occupation in fact. 

On the top of all these Japanese reforms conducted in 
Chinese interest with forced Chinese consent is to be im- 
posed the most tremendous bureaucracy of which the world 
has yet heard. The thousands of Japanese administrators, 
already claimed as essential, would pervade and dominate 
every department of China. Her whole Government would 
be Japanese. Her political, her financial, her military af- 
fairs would be wholly and solely carried on by imported 
foreigners from Japan, who would leave to the Chinese no 
such local rights to manage their own business as even the 
Manchu dynasties conceded. Consequently, China, within 
a generation or so, would become thoroughly Japanese. 
And, of course, nobody would have the slightest right to 
interfere, any more than they have in Korea at the present 
time. Asia for the Asiatics. China for the Japanese. A 
doctrine of exclusion of all foreigners except the Japanese 
is part of this vast scheme which the exigencies of the 
Great War have hidden from Western Europe. It is im- 
possible, in my opinion, to exaggerate the importance of 
what is steadily going on. We are talking of peace, perma- 
nent peace, of a League of Nations, of the universal 
brotherhood of man. And all the time a poor but well- 
peopled, well-trained, well-disciplined and most ambitious 
Empire at the other side of the vi^orld has prepared a plan 
of annexation for a huge contiguous Republic with some 
400,000,000 of inhabitants which, under her guidance, will 
at no distant date become by far the most powerful State 
in the world. 

This may be inevitable though I do not think it is. But 
if Great Britain, the United States and France allow China 



The Boxer Rising 105 

to be placed under Japanese rule, as Korea is already, then, 
in my opinion, the prospects for peace in the not remote 
future will scarcely have been improved by the defeat of 
Germany. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHINA FOR THE CHINESE 

When European writers and speakers treat of China and 
her development they almost invariably do so from a pure- 
ly selfish point of view. They are eager to "open up" 
China in order to sell their goods at a profit; they are 
anxious to spread their religion in order to extend the in- 
fluence of their own ideas. Chinese statesmen and the 
Chinese people may be quite right, nevertheless, in declaring 
that both foreign trades and foreign religions shall only 
be introduced into their own territory under such restric- 
tions as they may see fit to impose. The history of the 
opium traffic, the seizure of large portions of their country 
by the foreign traders, and the rush for concessions to be 
held and managed by strangers from without have taught 
the Chinese a lesson. 

So far as Europe is concerned, while intercourse with 
foreigners is growing and their help in certain directions 
is not refused, the determination that China shall be mis- 
tress in her own country, which was strongly expressed 
under the Manchus, is certainly not weakening under the 
Republic. In considering, therefore, the remarkable and 
rapid economic changes which are now taking place in that 
Empire it is well to bear in mind that they do not in any 
way interfere with the demand of "China for the Chinese." 
Nor should we overlook the fact that, much as the Chinese 
dislike the Japanese and resent the success which they have 
achieved and the manner in which, by war and diplomacy, 
they have secured large portions of Chinese territory, yet 

1 06 



China for the Chinese 107 

Asiatics have a capacity for understanding and acting with 
Asiatics that Europeans can never fathom. The Chinese 
have no desire whatever to come under Japanese rule — far 
from it. They have seen what that means in Korea, where 
tyranny and cruelty of the most atrocious character have 
been practised in the name of civilisation, order and hu- 
manity. The methods of suppression used in Formosa 
towards the Chinese settled in that island have been no 
better; though the conditions in this case rendered harsh 
action possibly more excusable. But, in spite of all this, 
were it to come to a choice between European partition and 
Japanese ascendency, there is little doubt which would have 
the preference. 

Meanwhile China is adopting Western improvements 
to such an extent that a vast economic and social revolution 
is being brought about, similar to that wbich has taken place 
in Japan, though on different lines. The great European 
War has compelled the Chinese to rely upon themselves for 
certain of their internal developments which foreigners had 
formerly carried out for them. The Great War has, in fact, 
extended its influence to China even in industrial affairs. 
But just as Japan, while at first using European methods, 
contrived to turn them eventually into means for ousting 
the foreigner; so the Chinese, who, at first, were far more 
under the control of white men than their rivals of the 
Island Empire, are now proceeding in the same direction. 
Complete emancipation is their object. The Chinese would 
rather slacken progress than purchase increased rapidity of 
development by submission to European or American capi- 
talists. 

Since the Boxer rising the construction of railways, 
instead of being hampered, has been favoured by the prin- 
cipal central and local authorities. This came about al- 
though the revolution against the Manchus was partly 
fostered by denunciation of the nationalisation, or central- 



io8 The Awakening of Asia 

isation, of railways then being attempted. The people also 
are steadily losing their prejudices against railways, as the 
injury done to local industries and transport agencies is, 
they find, compensated in other directions. In spite of 
costly financing and the bad conduct of the foreign man- 
agers in some instances, the 5,000 miles of railways built 
and running in China have achieved a greater financial suc- 
cess than has ever been attained in any country. According 
to the latest statistics, the profits upon the Peking and 
Mukden Railway, after deducting 5 per cent, upon the 
capital embarked, amounted to upwards of 18^ per cent, 
for the year 191 3. The year before the net earnings on 
a similar basis were 19^ per cent, on the total capital. 

A yet more remarkable instance of success from the 
first is the section of the railway from Peking to Sinyuan, 
a distance of 400 miles. The section, Peking-Kalgan, al- 
ready built, consists of 125 miles, much of it through ex- 
ceptionally difficult country. It was constructed and financed 
entirely by the Chinese themselves; and, even on this por- 
tion, without any of the through traffic which v/ill hereafter 
be secured, it earns already 20 per cent, upon the capital 
employed. Similar satisfactory results are being obtained 
on the Peking-Hankow railway. In fact, everywhere in 
China the railways are a great financial success. No won- 
der, therefore, that the Chinese, apart from their desire 
to exclude foreigners as far as possible from railway man- 
agement, should be anxious to obtain complete control for 
themselves. This they have done as far as they can. 
But the prices they have had to pay, tO' recover possession 
of the lines granted by concession to outsiders, have, of 
course, immensely reduced the average of interest obtain- 
able by the purchasers. 

That the policy of acquisition is fully justified is clearly 
shown by the fact that, even during the revolution and the 
period of unsettlement which followed under the RepubHc, 



China for the Chinese 109 

such surprising results were obtained. Moreover, amid 
all the turmoil, the Chinese railway employees worked 
steadily on, without any regard to the political disturbance, 
though the railways themselves were largely used for the 
transport of the troops necessary to secure the victory of 
the Republicans over the Manchus. And the construction 
of the designed railways proceeded almost as if the most 
crucial revolution in the history of the Empire were not go- 
ing on at all. The recent war, having completely shut off 
the supply of foreign capital and skilled foreign aid, on 
the concessions granted to outsiders, has forced the Chinese 
to carry out their improvements themselves, and they are 
constructing railways in more than one district by Chinese 
engineers, Chinese managers and Chinese labour exclu- 
sively. The lack of capital from abroad slackens the rate 
of progress but does not stop it altogether. Thus the 
Chinese will now be able, while making use of foreign capi- 
tal when needed, to impose restrictions which, at the begin- 
ning of their railway construction policy, were difficult, if 
not impossible, to enforce. 

Another example of what can be done by native effort 
is the San Ming Railway in one of the districts south-west 
of Canton. Here a line has been projected, carried out 
and a township built quite in accordance with the most 
modem European ideas of local development. The rail- 
way starts from Kung Yik Fou, which occupied a site cov- 
ered only by rice-fields when the surveyors selected it as 
the ground for the erection of a township. Within two 
years this new terminus was laid out with straight, well- 
lit asphalted streets. Buildings of solid construction were 
erected, with shops, offices, etc., as well as a large hotel. A 
big commercial centre is growing, connected by the rail- 
way with the sea and opening up the delta of the river. 
The whole was planned, built and financed by the Chinese 
themselves. Similar changes are being brought about in 



no The . Awakening of Asia 

many directions, and factories, ironworks, etc., are being 
established and managed successfully entirely by Chinese. 

One notable point about the Chinese railways is the 
extraordinary financial success they have achieved, in spite 
of the fact that the ordinary roads throughout the Empire 
are some of the worst in the world. The vastly improved 
postal system seems to have had little effect so far in creat- 
ing and keeping up good public highways. Now in Great 
Britain and most European countries fairly good roads had 
been gradually made between the main cities and towns 
long prior to the construction of the railways. These were 
introduced because the highroads for horse vehicles were 
found to be quite insufficient to meet the demands of in- 
creasing traffic, and canals, though much cheaper for freight 
than either common roads or railways, were exceedingly 
slow for transit and were never adequately developed. 

In China this has not been the case at all. Roads were 
practically non-existent. And, though China has some of 
the finest canals in the world, built in the old days, they 
have not been extended for generations. Railways, there- 
fore, were introduced into this densely-peopled country al- 
most under similar conditions to those prevailing in new 
territories. Ordinary roads have to be constructed to lead 
up to the railroads, and as this is done and the railways 
themselves are extended to connect all the main centres of 
trade, it seems impossible to over-estimate the traffic which 
will grow up for the purpose of internal supply, without 
considering foreign trade at all. Natural as it may be that 
foreigners of all nationalities and all races should be eager 
to take advantage of the openings afforded for commerce 
with this vast population, they will soon learn that China 
has within herself such immense resources of all kinds, 
and extends over such widely different climates, that at 
need she could easily supply all her wants and find all her 



China for the Chinese in 

own markets, witHotit reference to any other nation what- 
ever. 

Thus, at the present time, the Chinese are so short of 
fuel that hot water is a great luxury. Unlike the Japanese, 
the poorer classes in China can hardly ever get hot baths, 
though when these are readily obtainable, as at Singapore 
and other places to which the Chinese emigrate, they take 
to them naturally enough. But when the enormous coal 
supply is opened up, here is a vast market at hand for 
internal heating of all kind. The railways, the new indus- 
tries, Chinese vessels on the sea and along the canals, will 
create an enormous demand for all this coal. And the 
province of Shansi alone has been estimated by first-rate 
authorities to contain enough workable coal to last, taking 
account of any conceivable increase in its use, for upwards 
of 1,000 years. The huge national coal supply, of which 
this one province is only part, will shortly be developed 
and connected with the great cities and most populous 
districts by railway, and thenceforward we may expect to 
see China enter upon yet another remarkable phase in its 
great history. 

It is not likely that the Chinese will take up speedily the 
co-operative phase of industry. The economic circum- 
stances and social environment have not yet reached the 
stage where this is possible. In all probability a consid- 
erable period of competition must come, as in Japan and 
Europe, before such a transformation can be brought about. 
During this period the Chinese will be themselves most 
formidable competitors on the markets of the world. More 
formidable even than the Japanese if they work inde- 
pendently. Most formidable of all if they work in com- 
bination with those islanders — ^which is by no means tm- 
likely. 

For the Chinese in their own country, as abroad, are 
the most persistent and indefatigable toilers the world has 



112 The Awakening of Asia 

ever seen. Like the English, they are content to be wage- 
slaves, so long as they get what they consider to be good 
pay. They are ready to work long hours in factories at 
rates of wages which the European labourer of similar 
capacity would scoff at. By universal admission, in all 
grades of employment, they are proving themselves little, 
if at all, inferior to their white compeers. My own opin- 
ion, from what I have seen of them outside China, is that, 
so long as they are decently treated and bargains made with 
them are strictly fulfilled, they are capable, trustworthy and 
thoroughly well-behaved. Yet the Chinese who emigrate 
to America, Australia, etc., are quite the lower grade of 
the general Chinese population. 

The effect of the war upon China's foreign policy has 
been much greater than was at first anticipated. Though 
Japan, acting strictly in accordance with her understand- 
ings and treaties with Great Britain, declared herself at 
once on the side of the Allies against Germany, and ren- 
dered them excellent service in the Pacific and by the pro- 
vision of munitions, there seemed every probability that 
the Republic of China would be able to maintain a strict 
neutrality, tempered only by Japanese high-handed diplo- 
macy. The Germans did all they could to ensure the con- 
tinuance of China's neutrality and to render it as benevo- 
lent as possible towards themselves. They relied for suc- 
cess, not only upon the great influence which their agents 
had obtained by timely loans to the reactionary section of 
the new Republicans, but also upon an elaborate propaganda 
conducted in their favour throughout the Provinces, at 
an expense relatively almost comparable to the huge sums 
spent for the like purpose by Count Bernstorff in the United 
States. 

But it seemed impossible for Germany, under her Im- 
perial Dynasty, to act with good faith, or even ordinary 
prudence, towards neutrals with whom it was her interest 



China for the Chinese 113 

ias well as her apparent wisH to ingratiate herself. Con- 
sequently, after the most earnest efforts, attended by some 
success, to persuade the Chinese that the rebellious tribes 
on the frontier of the French possessions were armed and 
supported by the French Republic, the Germans, by their 
piratical policy at sea, destroyed at a blow everything they 
had done to impress the Chinese Government with their 
vast power and unfailing success. Though the President 
himself, like his predecessor, was disinclined to take an 
active part in the war, the popular sentiment was too strong 
for him, and he was compelled by Parliament to break off 
diplomatic relations with the Central Powers, to declare 
war upon them, and to follow up this policy by strong action 
against German citizens and German property in China. 

Thus China, the oldest and most populous Empire iiJ 
the world, just converted Into a modern political Republic, 
took its stand with its rival and recent enemy, Japan, side 
by side with the European Allies and the United States 
of America In the world-wide war. It may be that this 
step on the part of China will be regarded in time to come 
as by no means the least important event In the history 
of the stupendous conflict which has devastated Europe. 
East and West, China, Japan and India, by Germany's mad 
tactics of outrage and piracy, were brought Into alliance not 
only with Europe but with America. It was Sun Yat Sen, 
the Washington of China, the man to whom more than 
any other the Chinese Republic owes Its foundation in the 
first instance as well as Its consolidation after Yuan-Shl- 
Kai's harmful policy and death, who sent congratulations 
on behalf of 350,000,000 of educated and peaceful Asiatics, 
to the Republic of the United States when the President of 
America was also forced Into war. The fact that in this 
way all the greatest civilised nations on the globe, outside 
the Central Powers, have become entitled to a share in the 
common settlement of affairs, gives great hope that any 



114 The Awakening of Asia 

economic and social antagonisms which may arise will be 
harmonised and a collision averted between the white races 
and the growing forces of Asia. 

At the present time the United Kingdom possesses one- 
half of the total foreign trade with China. Nearly all the 
discussion in our Press turns on the problem of how the 
English are to retain this overwhelming superiority in the 
face of German, American and Japafiese competition. Ger- 
many is for the time being out of the fray, but only for 
the time being. America is greatly troubled by the "clos- 
ing of the open door" through Japan's action during the 
war. Japan herself is using her military and naval strength, 
as well as her superior capacity, for interpenetration of 
China, due to her knowledge of the Chinese language and 
easy adaptability to Chinese habits and customs, to steal a 
march upon all the white men. Allies and enemies alike, in- 
tending to obtain an ultimate monopoly of Chinese external 
commerce. It is capitalist antagonism of the most acute 
character, in which, to all appearance, Japan will eventually 
come out the winner, so far as her European competitors 
are concerned. Her "spheres of influence," as already 
seen, have immensely extended since August, 1914 : her com- 
mercial progress more than keeps pace with her military, 
naval and diplomatic success. But even more difficult to 
cope with in years to come will be Chinese internal produc- 
tion. The cotton trade, in particular, is one in which 
China may easily suffice for herself. Nor, to judge by what 
is taking place already, need she fear that in the manu- 
facture of iron and steel she must long be dependent upon 
foreign supplies. In fact, the competition which is most to 
be feared in the Chinese trade is that from China herself, 
and no long time may elapse before Lancashire has to pon- 
der this truth very seriously. Whether the decay and ruin 
of the factory industry in Lancashire and Yorkshire would 



China for the Chinese 115 

really be disadvantageous to Great Britain as a whole is 
another matter. 

The Japanese Premier and Count Ushida have recently 
laid stress upon the renewed strength of the Anglo-Japanese 
AlHance and have declared that Japan has no desire what- 
ever for territorial expansion. They do not disguise, how- 
ever, that they wish to obtain commercial domination, in 
certain directions, even should they return Shantung and 
Tsing-Tau to China. That the Chinese do not feel very 
safe, in spite of these assurances, is certain. It is unrea- 
sonable to expect that they should. The demands made by 
Japan in 191 5 have still not been withdrawn, nor, so far as 
at present appears, does the Peace Conference intend to 
meddle in this matter. Meanwhile, China is divided into 
two conflicting sections. These two parties of the North 
and South are meeting in conference, and it is hoped by 
patriotic Chinese that some satisfactory arrangement for 
common action will be come to ; the rather that Japan is ac- 
cused of fomenting the discord in her own interest. Until 
an understanding is arrived at, the talk of the nominal 
President at Peking with European interviewers goes for 
little or nothing. 

Much as we may admire the ability and statecraft by 
which Japan has acquired her eminent position in the 
Far East, it is well to have no illusions as to her fundamental 
policy. Japan is a warlike, China is a peaceful, power. 
Japan, even now, is a very poor country. China is rich, and 
possesses incalculable resources for the creation of wealth. 
Japan regards China as her treasure-house of raw materials 
for her industries, as they exist at present; the market for 
her industries as they may be in the near future; and the 
ideal country in which she can exercise her great powers 
of organisation and development later on. China feels 
confident that, if given fair play, she can open up, connect 
by road and railway, administer and co-ordinate her own 



ii6 The Awakening of Asia 

vast and wealthy territories for herself. But she is at 
present in no position to resist the claims of Japan to exer- 
cise exceptional authority, and to obtain unprecedented 
privileges within the borders of China, unless she has sup- 
port from without. In view of what has happened since 
1895, China may well be excused for not accepting verbal 
engagements as binding, should there be — as there undoubt- 
edly is — very strong reason on Japan's side for breaking 
them. 

Whatever may be said, therefore, as to the value of the 
Anglo-Japanese Treaties, which, unless renewed, come to 
an end in 1921, it is obviously not to the interest of China 
herself, of Great Britain, or of the United States, to say 
nothing of France and other European Powers, that Japan 
should carry on a similar policy towards China to that 
which she has so successfully completed in regard to Korea. 
China is greatly alarmed at Japanese ambition and her 
astute methods of "peaceful penetration," supported always 
by powerful forces on land and on sea. China under the 
complete control of Japan would be as great a danger as 
the German mastery of Central and Eastern Europe to per- 
manent peace, League of Nations or no League of Na- 
tions. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE GROWTH OF JAPAN 

The development of Japan in the course of the past forty 
years has been something altogether unprecedented in hu- 
man history. Even Europeans who witnessed, close at 
hand, the changes that were taking place, by no means fully 
appreciated what was going on under their own eyes. The 
transformation from feudalism to modern capitalism, which 
has not been achieved in the most advanced European coun- 
tries within a period of four hundred years, was accom- 
plished in Japan in a tenth part of that time. From first 
to last the whole story has been most dramatic. A people 
described, not fifty years ago, by one of the shrewdest of 
our ambassadors as "highly intelligent children," became, 
between 1870 and 19 10, one of the great Powers of the 
world : fighting, negotiating, treaty-making, manufacturing, 
trading on at least equal terms with European nations, from 
whom in that short space of time they had learnt all the 
essentials of modern military and industrial life. 

That this is only a beginning all now understand and 
not a few fear. The more so that this rapid rise in strength, 
as the ablest Japanese writers point out, has, strictly speak- 
ing, been accomplished by no revolution. There have been 
great risings, desperate civil wars, extraordinary class dis- 
placements, a complete overthrow of "Mayors of the 
Palace," more influential than any of the vice-kings who 
held sway in France. Yet the same royal family of divine 
descent, whose members have sat as Mikado in direct suc- 
cession on the Imperial throne for unnumbered centuries, 

117 



ii8 The Awakening of Asia 

holds unchallenged rule to-day. The removal of the mon- 
arch has apparently never been thought of. His godlike 
supremacy remains the most permanent, unchangeable fea- 
ture in all the varied movements of Japanese growth. His 
sacred autocracy, carefully concealed by political and par- 
liamentary forms, remains, and is likely to remain, as fully 
accepted in practice by the sceptical Japanese scholar, who 
returns from his European studies versed in all the science 
and culture of the West, as by the least educated coolie 
who pulls along a rickshaw. 

The concentration of Japanese patriotism on the su- 
preme ruler, and the worship of ancestry and ancestors, 
as if ever present at all times in the life and death of the 
organisers and defenders of the country, give to the Japan- 
ese not only in military but in civil affairs an ardour of 
personal service, where the interests of the nation are in- 
volved, which is quite unequalled in any modern State. Not 
even Germany, with its organised cult of Kaiser, State and 
Fatherland right or wrong, showed such devotion to the 
ideal of national success and pre-eminence as Japan. And 
apparently the full development of the great faculties which 
underlay the old Japanese civilisation has by no means yet 
been reached. Every step taken forward is carefully 
utilised in order to ensure with safety the next advance. If 
the desired end can be achieved peacefully, so much the 
better; but the preparations for war, should peace negotia- 
tions fail, are never relaxed. If, therefore, China with her 
vast resources and immense population of industrious, edu- 
cated, peace-loving toilers may in the future become the 
leading nation of the whole world, it cannot be disputed 
that for many years to come Japan will remain the leading 
nation of the Far East. 

So complete a library of books on the history of Japan 
has been compiled by Japanese, European and American 
writers of late years that it is possible to survey the prog- 



The Growth of Japan 119 

ress of the country in the past and its position in the 
present from almost every point of view. The Japanese 
themselves reckon their modern annals from the visit of 
Commodore Perry's American squadron in 1853. At that 
date they had been shut out from foreign intercourse, for- 
eign settlement and foreign trade for a period of fully two 
hundred years. This policy of exclusion was due to the 
outrageous attempts of the Jesuits and other Catholic orders 
to obtain political domination in the Island Empire. Only 
the Chinese, and the Dutch to a very limited extent, were 
exceptions to this complete boycott of outsiders. 

Thus for seven entire generations Japan had sufficed 
for herself and had developed her social system independent 
of any external influence whatsoever. Since, during this 
period, her people had been on the whole prosperous and 
had greatly increased in numbers; since, also, the great 
Togowara family, which held the real government of the 
country under the atrophied supremacy of the Mikado, had 
produced a series of able men to act as vice-kings over the 
great feudal nobility; since, likewise, the fate of India and 
the ruthless attacks of Europeans upon China were not un- 
known to Japanese rulers and learned men — it is not sur- 
prising that when Commodore Perry demanded, more than 
sixty years ago, that the country should be opened to Ameri- 
can intercourse, he met with a cool reception and a plain 
*'No." The civil wars occasioned by Christian intrigues 
and politico-religious enterprise, when hundreds of splendid 
old temples were burnt down and thousands of Japanese 
were killed and wounded on both sides, had left too deep a 
mark on Japan to be forgotten. Fear of a renewal of such 
imported troubles from another side naturally influenced 
the Japanese in their attitude toward the white new-comers 
from the United States, whom they, of course, associated 
with Europeans. 

But the American envoy was shrewd as well as firm and 



120 The Awakening of Asia 

dexterous. On his second visit in the following year his 
prospects of success were much greater. In the meantime, 
the whole question had been carefully discussed by the 
Japanese, and her leading men had come to the conclusion 
that Japan could not permanently seclude herself from the 
outside world. The only thing to be done was to keep such 
fateful intercourse within the narrowest possible limits. It 
was clear that the American Commodore and envoy did not 
intend to put up with a refusal. He had the means for en- 
forcing his demands at his disposal. Therefore the cau- 
tious but clever people with whom he was dealing arranged 
in a friendly manner a question which might otherwise have 
been decided by force of arms. Japan in 1854 was again 
opened to some extent to foreign trade and settlement. 
America was acting not only for herself but for all civilised 
countries. Not even yet, perhaps, do we fully appreciate 
the meaning of this step. A completely new element was 
then introduced into the politics of the Far East and of the 
world at large. 

I was talking many years ago to my friend the well- 
known American geographer and engineer, the late Colonel 
Church, about the possible action of Japan and China, when 
they understood their own strength, and had adopted and 
applied the methods of Western Europe to military and 
industrial development, in the islands and on the mainland. 
In the course of our conversation he said: "When I was 
encamped on the head waters of the Amazon, travelling 
down from Bolivia in 1869, I saw a queer, clumsy animal 
busily licking up the ants which were working round the 
base of a big ant-heap. The ants inside paid no attention 
to the fate of their fellows. This went on for some time, 
and the depredator was doing exceedingly well. Suddenly 
it occurred to him that, although there were so many ants 
outside, there must be a great many more within. So he 



The Growth of Japan 121 

made full use of his forepaws and broke down the heap. 
Within two hours his bones were whitening in the sun. 

"And that will finally be the fate of the white races if 
they try to break up the human ant-heap of the swarming 
East." 

Little did the Americans imagine, when they broke in 
upon reluctant Japan, that they might be providing China 
and all Asia, and its hundreds of millions of people, with 
precisely that warlike leadership they need in any difficul- 
ties which may arise between the East and West in the near 
future. The two hundred years of seclusion had created 
among a large section of the people of Japan a spirit of 
warlike fellowship, of personal sacrifice and individual 
devotion unprecedented in our knowledge of the East. With 
these qualities were combined a capacity for accepting new 
ideas, imitating foreign inventions and institutions, and 
adapting the latest appliances to their own needs which, 
likewise, had never before been seen in Asia. Nothing of 
this was known either to Europeans or to the Japanese 
themselves when that first step which counts was taken by 
the United States in Japan. Since then the carapace of the 
ant-heap has been fractured in earnest. 

In 1856, with the consent of the Shogun and the ac- 
quiescence of the great Daimyos, the first American Consul 
was allowed to establish his Consulate at Shimoda and a 
commercial treaty was signed. Other commercial treaties 
were shortly afterwards concluded with England, France, 
Russia and other countries. There was still a very strong 
opposition to this course in Japan. But resistance to the 
Shogun Government and its feudal supporters was relent- 
lessly put down for the time being, and the treaties were 
confirmed and enforced by authority. 

Thus, following up the lead given by America, Euro- 
pean nations were not slow to push their trade in the open- 
ing afforded. As usual, foreigners thought that if they 



122 The Awakening of Asia 

were not welcome to the Japanese they ought to be, and, 
assuming all those airs of superiority, and displaying the 
congenital rudeness so specially offensive to courteous and 
polite people such as the Japanese, they quickly stirred up 
a bitter feeling against themselves. This brought about a 
confused massacre of Europeans at the Treaty Ports al- 
ready opened, within six years of the inauguration of the 
new policy. Such methods of exhibiting racial dislike are, 
of course, not in accordance with the comity of nations. 
Civilised countries make little allowance for these sudden 
ebullitions of dislike, accompanied by disorderly homi- 
cide, at the expense of their own people, no matter how 
much provocation may have been given — always provided 
that, as was then the case with Japan, the offending na- 
tionality is much the weaker party. Where strength is dis- 
played on the other side a less stringent diplomacy is gen- 
erally used. 

The cause of the outbreak, on this occasion, was the 
high-handed action of Russia in reference to the island 
of Saghalien, which by right belonged to Japan. There- 
fore the Japanese Government appealed for help to Great 
Britain and other foreign powers against Russia. This in 
turn gave rise to a furious agitation amounting almost to 
a civil war between the two native sections: those who 
favoured such invitations to the objectionable foreigner and 
those who regarded this action by the Japanese Government 
as derogatory to the nation. From an attack upon their 
countrymen who desired foreign aid and were ready to ex- 
tend foreign privileges, the disturbance spread to an assault 
by the reactionary or patriotic mob on the foreigners them- 
selves. Many of these were killed or injured. Their re- 
spective Governments demanded immediate apology and 
compensation from the Shogun and his administration, who 
still constituted the de facto Government of Japan. The 
Japanese authorities were unable or unwilling to meet the 



The Growth of Japan 123 

demands of the foreign Powers, on account of outrages 
committed by a set of people, who were, in fact, in revolt 
against the policy which the Shogun himself had initiated 
and carried out. They not unreasonably disclaimed re- 
sponsibility for acts directed quite as much against them- 
selves as against the foreigners who, incidentally, suffered 
severely. The Powers, however, possibly with equal jus- 
tice, claimed that a Government capable of making Treaties 
in the name of the nation could not evade its obligations, if 
subjects of the countries involved were killed or wounded, 
while acting within the strict limits of their Treaty rights. 

In the end controversy ceased and bombardment by Eu- 
ropean vessels began. Japan was bombarded at Kagoshima 
in 1862, and then by Great Britain, the United States and 
France, at Shimonoseki in 1863, and, having no means 
of making effective reply, was forced to give way. For- 
eign troops were landed, and Japan, which had been im- 
mune from hostile invasion since the complete failure of the 
expedition dispatched against her by the great Chinese Em- 
peror known to us as Kublai Khan, was threatened under 
conditions where resistance was hopeless. It was a ter- 
rible lesson. Its full meaning was not lost either upon the 
reformers or the reactionaries of Japan. The Japanese, 
however skilful and courageous they might be in the use of 
their own native weapons, saw that they could have no 
chance whatever of holding their own, still less of defeat- 
ing Europeans, on land or on sea, until they themselves pos- 
sessed European means of offence and destruction. What 
China only began to see in 1895 and 1900 the leaders of 
Japan grasped more than thirty years earlier. 

Such was the second great step in the advance of this 
almost unknown Asiatic country to its now recognised po- 
sition in the East. Astute as were the statesmen who took 
an active part in the removal of the Shogun in 1868, and 
the restoration of the almost powerless Emperor to the 



124 The Awakening of Asia 

long-forgotten active domination, which, in theory, still 
belonged to the Mikado, we cannot believe that they had any 
idea of the results which would follow from this remark- 
able political resurrection. 

Nevertheless, we can now discern that they took the 
only possible course by which their country could deal ade- 
quately with the new policy, and safely introduce the pe- 
riod of reorganisation and adaptation rendered essential 
by European intervention. Thus they so modified Japanese 
internal arrangements that one of the greatest political, so- 
cial and military transformations the world has ever seen 
was carried through with comparatively little civil warfare. 
It was practically impossible to make this wholesale change 
without any open antagonism or violent strife. The marvel 
is that all resistance to the new order of things should 
have been so promptly suppressed, and suppressed, too, by 
national troops, who had none of the traditional aptitude 
and cultivated chivalry of the rebel Samurai to whom they 
were opposed. Even more remarkable was the behaviour 
of the Daimyos, or great feudal dignitaries and these Samu- 
rai themselves, in voluntarily giving up their ancient privi- 
leges and pensions in order to ensure the success of the 
constitutional regime under the quasi-autocracy of the Mi- 
kado. That a dominant caste should thus peacefully sur- 
render its ancestral position, for the benefit of a system of 
government which its members could scarcely appreciate, 
is an example of patriotic self-sacrifice previously un- 
known. 

What was in effect a revolution in Japan — the surrender 
of the Shogunate by the last of the Shoguns and the down- 
fall of the feudal system — is referred to by the Japanese 
themselves as a "Restoration" of Imperial Powers which 
had fallen into desuetude in the course of hundreds of years. 
During these long centuries the Mikado had always been 
nominally the supreme authority, and the Shoguns them- 



The Growth of Japan 125 

selves claimed to derive their own delegated power from 
him and not from any hereditary succession of their own. 
Owing partly to the action of Sir Henry Parkes, the Brit- 
ish Ambassador at the time of the confirmation of the 
Treaties with foreign countries, the representative of the 
long line of Mikados, with all his afflatus of divine origin, 
was literally dug up from seclusion and endowed with fresh 
Imperial vigour. On April nth, 1868, this policy was 
definitely carried out with even less difficulty than attended 
the displacement of James II. by William III. and hia 
Hanoverian successors in Great Britain. Though for a 
short time there was vigorous fighting, no Pretenders arose 
thereafter to challenge the right and position of the Mikado. 
By the oath taken by the late Emperor Mutsuhito in 
1868 he, as represented by Prince Ito, undertook to edu- 
cate the people for their duties as members of a constitu- 
tional country. This was done systematically from above 
as well as by continuous instruction, steadily improving in 
scope and effectiveness, below. The ablest Japanese politi- 
cians and students were sent to Europe and the United 
States, in order to investigate thoroughly the forms, and 
give their reports upon the advantages, of the different con- 
stitutional systems accepted in the various States. The 
whole inquiry was conducted with Aristotelian exactitude, 
under far more difficult circumstances than those which 
confronted the great Greek philosopher. There was no 
attempt at sudden introduction of any cut-and-dried scheme 
or doctrinaire conception of constitutional government. 
What after careful consideration could be most advantage- 
ously adapted to Japanese manners and customs and 
thoughts and ideas was taken : the remainder was left. It 
was a sort of political eclecticism such as had never been 
attempted in practice before. And, as a learned and ex- 
perienced Japanese writer has ably put it, the result was 
that political parties arose before any public Assembly 



126 The Awakening of Asia 

was established. These poHtical parties rendered a Par- 
liament necessary to give expression to the views of the 
people of whom they were composed. This was directly 
contrary to what occurred in England, the Mother of Par- 
liaments, where the House of Commons, or Assembly of 
Burgesses, existed for a long time before political parties in 
any modern sense arose. 

But the Japanese democracy and its political system are 
very different from any European institution, just as the 
Japanese ''Constitutional Monarchy" is a totally distinct 
conception of kingship from any that has ever been seen in 
Europe. The Japanese are Asiatics, and in politics, as in 
policy, Asiatics they remain. The forms resemble ours : 
the spirit which underlies them is in nowise the same, nor 
even similar. However, from this memorable date on- 
wards, the pledge of the late Emperor has throughout been 
faithfully observed. Great as have been the difficulties and 
numerous the abuses, internal and external, which Japan 
has had to face, that undertaking to "educate the people to 
the requirements of a Constitutional State" has been steadily 
pursued. 

Public opinion is a plant of very slow growth, and, 
even in the most advanced European nations, its influence 
is far less powerful than is commonly supposed. There are 
many ways in which, even where it exists and may ad- 
vantageously exert itself, public opinion can be deceived or 
twisted hither and thither by an unscrupulous Government. 
We have had plenty of examples of that in Europe. But 
in Japan on really important matters it cannot even yet be 
said that the people take an intelligent and effective interest 
in their own affairs; though, as will be seen later, the ad- 
vanced parties, and in particular the Socialists, have done 
their utmost to stir up the people to constitutional agita- 
tion, in the interests of genuine social and political reform, 

r 



The Growth of Japan 127 

and recent events point to the achievement of some success 
in this respect. 

In 1 87 1 the feudal system was entirely abrogated, and 
that cleared the ground for those changes in the local and 
central administration which brought them into closer re- 
lationship with similar institutions in Europe. But ten 
years passed — a long time with Japan's rate of develop- 
ment — ^before definite steps were taken to set on foot rep- 
resentative government in anything like the European sense 
of the term. Eight years more went by before the new 
Constitution took shape in formal law. In the course of 
these twenty years from 1868 to 1889 a strong and formid- 
able bureaucracy had grown up on the ruins of the old 
feudal arrangements. On more than one occasion, notably 
in relation to Korea in 1873, ^^^ upon some suspicious land 
sales by the Government at a later date, there were popular 
risings and the demand of political factions for greater 
freedom of discussion led to serious outbreaks which were 
severely suppressed. 

With the formal promulgation of the Constitution in 
1889, followed by the creation of a Second House and a 
peerage, Japan entered finally upon her remarkable experi- 
ment of the adaptation of Western political institutions to 
an Asiatic foundation. Its success in general affairs can- 
not be disputed. But, so far as regards her external policy, 
and her extraordinary growth of military, naval and com- 
mercial strength, those are probably right who say that the 
constitutional democracy has little real significance; that 
Japan remains for the present a highly organised and effi- 
cient bureaucracy, with a ruler deified by the common peo- 
ple, and a State so consolidated that political manoeuvres 
will never be allowed to interfere with the realisation of 
national ambitions at home or abroad. 

The Constitution, however, as formally proclaimed and 
now maintained, leaves plenty of openings for democratic 



128 The Awakening of Asia 

development, as the people become accustomed to exercising 
their political power. 

The second object of the Emperor, according to Prince 
Ito, from 1868 onwards, was "to fortify the nation with the 
best results and resources of modern civilisation, in order 
to secure for the country prosperity, strength and culture 
and the consequent recognised status of membership upon 
an equal footing in the family of the most powerful and 
civilised nations of the world." This is as definite a policy 
as it was possible to enter upon; but it does not appear in 
the Constitutional Oath itself, and the generalities of the 
oath certainly do not express these great aspirations so 
clearly. Probably they grew up as the means for gratifying 
them were secured. 

The progress of Japan has generally followed the lines 
thus indicated by Prince Ito. But the change has been 
wrought by extension from military and naval reorganisa- 
tion to industrial and commercial development. From the 
first, the old warlike spirit was cultivated and scientifically 
used for the purposes of the new era. In her army and 
navy Japan quietly and persistently adopted all those im- 
provements in discipline, training, material appliances and 
highly-trained medical and surgical skill which Europe 
could teach her. Circumstances being as they were, there 
was no internal opposition to elaborate preparations carried 
on during many years apparently for provision against 
foreign attack. The European bombardments were quite 
sufficient ground for making thoroughly ready to meet any 
similar attacks in the future. Thus, from 1873 onwards, 
when universal military service was ordained, Japan, al- 
most unknown even to European observers on the spot, be- 
came a formidable adversary on land and on sea. The de- 
tails of the manner in which her power was built up are 
of much less interest than the fact that she completely suc- 
ceeded in the course of twenty years in carrying out all 



The Growth of Japan 129 

at which her statesmen aimed. When she was ready the 
results achieved were startling. 

Throughout this most important preparatory period, 
constitutional government was worked up to and eventually 
established. But in the sixteen years between the estab- 
lishment of universal military service and the adoption of 
representative forms of legislation and administration, a 
conception of national duty, accompanied by a knowledge 
of growing national strength, had been carefully inculcated 
among the people and the whole country was inspired, by 
degrees, with the new warlike enthusiasm, adapted to mod- 
ern conditions, but based upon the expansion of the old 
ideals. Several minor issues were raised by action from 
without, and the success of Japan in obtaining recognition 
of her international position fortified Japanese statesmen 
in the line of policy which they were pursuing. Public 
discussion and the growth of a newspaper press, backed 
up by political parties, so far as such parties could then 
be formed and express collective opinions, tended in the 
same direction — the consolidation of strong national feel- 
ing and a determination to assert the national dignity. 

General as well as special education went hand in hand 
with this wide national policy. Japanese rulers pursued 
efficiency with all the zeal of the Germans, and without 
showing at home that coarse militarist brutality which has 
rendered German discipline a byword in Europe for scien- 
tific ruffianism. True, in Korea, Formosa, and on the 
march to Peking, Japanese soldiers and administrators 
showed that they were not at all in advance of other mili- 
tarists, Asiatic or European, in their ruthless dealings with 
those who stood in their way, civilians or soldiers. But 
in Japan itself, apparently, the officers behaved with de- 
cency towards their own troops, alike in peace as in war; 
while the great care taken of the soldiers themselves, in 
all matters relating to their health and well-being, were a 



130 The Awakening of Asia 

lesson to the white men from whom they had originally 
learnt. 

Meanwhile, manufacture and trade and shipping were 
fostered with the same assiduity as other departments of 
the national life. Internal development, as will be seen 
later, kept pace with military training and civilian organ- 
isation. No pains were spared to bring Japan in all re- 
spects up to the level of those nations which, almost un- 
known to herself, and wholly disregarded by them, she was 
beginning to consider as her rivals in the struggle for 
prosperity, wealth and political influence. Industrial growth 
followed upon instead of preceding preparation for war. 
The two hundred years and more of complete seclusion thus 
formed an introduction to a sudden plunge into the full 
stream of world polity and world commerce. "Japan shall 
make herself" might well have been the motto which the 
old-new Japan had borrowed from Italy. There was no at- 
tempt at secrecy. Far from it. Japan persistently asserted 
herself, alike before and after the promulgation of the 
Constitution by the Emperor in 1889. From the first, her 
people regarded those international arrangements forced 
upon her by the European Powers, which hindered her 
complete control over her own affairs and established for- 
eign Courts and accorded foreign privileges in her own 
territory, as evidence of national inferiority and marks of 
national degradation. 

Japanese statesmen never ceased to press for the fullest 
recognition of the entirely independent position of Japan, 
by the revision, or indeed revocation, of all the treaties ob- 
tained from her. Count Okuma and Count Aoki, as suc- 
cessive Foreign Ministers, following upon the efforts of 
Count Inouye with the Powers in 1886, unceasingly de- 
manded that Japan should have entire control over foreign- 
ers in the country, should remove foreign judges from 
Japanese tribunals, should recover her full right to enact 



The Growth of Japan 131 

her own tariffs and should exclude foreigners frojrn her 
coasting trade. In short, they demanded that Japan should 
have precisely the same standing in all international mat- 
ters as England, France, the United States or Russia. But 
it was no easy matter to bring this to proper and honourable 
settlement. Some of the counter-demands made by the 
foreign Powers now seem quite outrageous. 

Those were the days when all Asiatics were regarded as 
human beings on a much lower plane than Europeans — 
a sort of half-way creation between the high-minded Cau- 
casian and the fetish-worshipping Hottentot. That an up- 
start little Empire like Japan should claim equality with 
great and ancient civilised nations was a matter not for 
serious negotiation but for ridicule and contempt. Japan, 
like China, had been "opened" by bombardment for the 
benefit not of the Japanese but of Europeans, and it was 
preposterous that all legitimate advantages gained by force 
of arms should be given up, merely because the Japanese 
Government had created a sort of spurious patriotism among 
the people, who resented the really philanthropic designs 
of white men from without ! 

This is really no exaggeration of the tone of the Euro- 
pean official negotiators from 1880 onwards, as may be 
seen from the records on both sides of what took place. 
The foreign residents in Japan, indeed, took up a position 
which could only have been justified if Japan had been on 
the high road to become a conquered country, or at least 
a subordinate nation under European guarantee and guid- 
ance. In spite of the transformation which Japan had al- 
ready undergone, notwithstanding the extraordinary series 
of events which had led up to the existing situation, these 
Asiatic people were still, according to this idea, where they 
had been fifty years before. Even the Chinese despised the 
little Japs and put them on much the same level as the bar- 
barous tribes on the Western frontier of their Empire. 



132 The Awakening of Asia 

Fortunately, after several years of petty diplomatic 
trafficking, which more than once nearly led to war, Great 
Britain, and then the other Powers, gave way practically 
to all Japanese claims, Japan, without resort to arms but 
by sheer force of reason and good diplomacy, recovered all 
the control over her own affairs of which she had been de- 
prived. 

This relief of Japan from unreasonable foreign inter- 
vention was first acknowledged to be just and formulated 
as a Treaty, by Great Britain, on July i6, 1894 — only 
twenty-five years ago^ — and other Powers followed on the 
same lines. It is noteworthy that in the very same month 
(on July 25th) the war with China about Korea began. 
This war with China was the event which partially, but 
only partially, revealed to Europe the strength of the new 
Empire that had come to the front in the Far East. 



CHAPTER X 

JAPAN TRIES HER STRENGTH 

The relations of Japan with Korea extend over many, 
many centuries, beginning even with the mythical tradi- 
tions of prehistoric time. Japan was civilised from China 
through Korea, and it is to Korea that she admittedly owes 
her most important domestic industries as well as her art. 
The Japanese themselves recognise fully their indebtedness 
to the Koreans in these respects ; and almost sacred records 
of the gratitude of the nation to their Chinese and Korean 
teachers are to be found frequently in Japan to-day. Their 
influence pervaded the whole of Japanese thought, literature 
and general development. This did not prevent Japan from 
completely conquering the country in the third century of 
the Christian era, and she remained mistress of Korea for 
several hundred years. Later, all hold upon the mainland 
was given up, and Japan withdrew to her own territory. 
But the geographical situation of Korea in relation to Japan 
is such that, unless the rulers of that nation were friendly 
and the Japanese could rely upon the support of the Korean 
Court, difficulties were certain to arise, so soon as the 
policy of Japan brought her into close contact with the 
outside world. 

Previously, considerable numbers of Chinese and Ko- 
reans had settled in Japan and had become recognised mem- 
bers of the community without any friction. This is used 
as evidence by the Japanese to show that they have no 
prejudice against the civilised people of the mainland, to 
whom in days gone by they had owed so much. But they 

133 



134 The Awakening of Asia 

could not forget that, centuries before, the great invasion 
of Japan by China in the thirteenth century, which would 
probably have succeeded but for the intervention of a hur- 
ricane, had been organised from Korea. If, therefore, 
Korea in modern times, under Chinese influence, turned 
against Japan, or if Russia, now steadily approaching from 
the West and North, gained the upper hand in the King- 
dom of Chusen, then that populous peninsula might become 
a serious danger to the Island Empire. And Japan, five- 
and-twenty years ago, was not nearly so confident of her 
own strength as she naturally is to-day. 

Japan thought she could afford to run no risks, should 
Korea fall under hostile control, native or foreign. Though 
the Koreans had paid tribute to Japan for several genera- 
tions, this did not necessarily give the Japanese any hold 
upon Korea itself ; and the Japanese acknowledged it them- 
selves, when, in their first Treaty, they recognised Korea 
as an independent sovereign State and sent later an Embassy 
to the Korean capital. Unfortunately, in 1894, a series of 
outrages were committed by the Koreans in their capital, 
with the support of their own Government, and at last with 
the countenance and aid of Chinese troops, under the com- 
mand of the late President of the Chinese Republic, Yuan- 
Shi-Kai. This wound up by an attack upon the Japanese 
Legation at Seoul, which was burnt down. However, war 
was then averted by the self-restraint of the Japanese Gov- 
ernment, which contented itself with very moderate terms. 

Thereafter, the struggle between China, Russia and 
Japan for the dominant position in Korea took an acute 
shape. At first the Chinese had every advantage, and were 
not only favoured by the Koreans but had virtual control 
of the Korean Court and Government. A rule of misman- 
agement and corruption on the part of the Korean officials 
was followed by conspiracies and risings. These led to the 
intervention in the internal affairs of Korea of all three 



Japan Tries Her Strength 135 

powers, China, Russia and Japan, with a view to a reorgan- 
isation of the whole administration. Both China and Rus- 
sia strongly objected to the presence of Japanese troops in 
Korea, though this was justified by the Treaty of Tientsin, 
\vhen the Chinese Government itself sent troops there. An 
attempt to arrange joint action with China was refused, and 
the sinking of a Chinese transport by a Japanese war ves- 
sel brought about the war between China and Japan in 
1894-95. 

This war was the most important event that had oc- 
curred in the history of Asia since the Manchu conquest 
of the Chinese Empire. At the commencement, as already 
remarked, nearly all the Europeans who were best acquaint- 
ed with affairs in the Far East anticipated the easy victory 
of the huge Chinese Monarchy over pretentious little Japan. 
The Japanese were still contemned, not only by the Chinese 
themselves but by the Russians and other European na- 
tions. Even Great Britain, which had so recently signed 
a Treaty very favourable to Japanese claims, seems to have 
been ignorant of the inevitable result of the conflict, be- 
tween a comparatively small but active, progressive and war- 
like nation, possessed of the latest modern weapons and 
huge, unwieldy, belated China, with no effective forces on 
land or on sea. 

To the amazement of the whole Eastern world, Japan 
was completely victorious from the first and all through. 
The Chinese Government had entirely overrated its 
strength: the European Powers were completely taken by 
surprise. If she had been left alone there can be little doubt 
that Japan would, then and there, have entered upon a 
policy of domination which in a few years would have 
placed the whole Chinese Empire at her control. That, ac- 
cording to Asiatic ideas, must be the natural result of such 
obvious superiority as Japan had displayed in a short but 
decisive campaign. But the actual terms of the Treaty 



136 The Awakening of Asia 

of Peace, signed at Shimonoseki on April 14, 1895, were 
far from containing any demand for supremacy. Japan 
obviously felt already that jealous lookers-on would not 
tolerate a step which could render the Island Empire one of 
the greatest Powers in the world. The original Treaty, 
therefore, was moderate enough: 

1. Recognition of the full and complete independence 
of Korea by China. 

2. Cession of the Liaotung Peninsula (Port Arthur, 
etc.), and the adjacent waters, to Japan. 

3. Cession of Formosa and the Pescadores to Japan. 

4. Payment to Japan of an indemnity of 200,000,000 
taels. 

5. Opening up of Shashih, Chunking, Suchow and 
Hangchow to trade. 

6. Opening of the Yangtse-Kiang to navigation. 
These terms, however, and the surprising outcome of 

the war itself at once convinced Russian statesmen that they 
had now a rival for influence and acquisition of territory 
in the Far East that might prove infinitely more powerful 
than peaceful, apathetic China, who would put up with al- 
most any pressure from European nations. Russia, there- 
fore, with the support of France and Germany, demanded 
that the Liaotung Peninsula, the only really important 
concession claimed by Japan f;*om China, should be given 
up. The ground for this demand expressly was that the 
Japanese possession of the Liaotung Peninsula, owing to its 
geographical position, would be a constant menace to 
Peking and render illusory the independence of Korea. It 
cannot be denied that these contentions were entirely justi- 
fiable. But this did not make the surrender any more 
palatable to Japan, who only gave way to the obvious asser- 
tion of superior force which, at that time, she had no means 
of effectively resisting. 

What followed in Korea showed the view the Japan- 



Japan Tries Her Strength 137 

ese really took of their position in regard to that kingdom. 
They acted as if they were masters there : ably when Count 
Inouye was their Minister; foolishly and provocatively 
when General Miura took his place. Owing to the proceed- 
ings of the latter and the resentment occasioned in Seoul 
and Korea generally, Russia came to the front and ob- 
tained almost complete control. The hopeless weakness of 
China disclosed by this war, and afterwards the confusion 
caused by the Boxer rising, encouraged the European Pow- 
ers to enter upon a general campaign of peaceful encroach- 
ment, the result of which was that Japan found herself face 
to face with the possibility of the dismemberment of China 
by territorial annexations, and creation of "spheres of influ- 
ence" all over the Empire, the sole interest of the European 
Powers. Maps, in fact, were published in the years between 
1895 and 1904 which coolly appropriated to this or that 
Western nation vast districts which they were to exploit 
and develop much as they pleased. Japanese policy seemed 
entirely frustrated. "Asia for the Asiatics" became a mere 
dream. 

Nor did the active part which the admirably equipped 
and officered army of Japan took in the relief of Peking 
mend matters much from her point of view. For now Rus- 
sia obtained the right from China to carry her Siberian 
railway through Manchuria, secured a definite lease of the 
Liaotung- Peninsula, which she had compelled Japan to 
give up, practically obtained possession of the rich territory 
of Manchuria, and was daily increasing her control over 
Korea. Germany, France and Great Britain had like- 
wise taken what they wanted, or thought they might want. 
Russia then abandoned any pretence of acting in common 
with the other Powers, or in the general interest, so far as 
Manchuria was concerned; although she had been a party 
to the arrangement between all the European countries, and 
at that time Great Britain and Germany were acting under 



138 The Awakening of Asia 

agreement in the East to safeguard the integrity of China. 
Thus Russia was the nation which had gained most sub- 
stantially, first by Japan's victory over China and next by 
the Boxer risings. She took advantage of the increasing 
weakness of China and the incapacity of Japan to resist 
her policy. 

In consequence, Japan found herself deprived of all 
direct influence in Korea, and saw Manchuria and the 
Liaotung Peninsula entirely in Russian hands. This was a 
dangerous position for the rising Island Empire. Precisely 
those perils which Japanese statesmen had long foreseen, 
and tried to avert, now confronted their country in the 
most menacing shape. Russia, the European Power which 
then appeared the most formidable and ambitious in the 
world, held certain geographical territories and strategical 
ports which, when Japan seemed likely to hold them, had 
been declared perilous to Korea and even to Chinese inde- 
pendence. 

Under these circumstances the Island Empire was forced 
to take into consideration her whole future policy in the 
East. The alternative which presented itself to her states- 
men was to make terms at once with Russia — a policy advo- 
cated by perhaps the ablest man in Japan — or to enter upon 
a Treaty with Great Britain, who at this period was in full 
blast of antagonism to St. Petersburg, though by no means 
devoid of resentment towards Germany for the attitude 
taken by the Kaiser in regard to the Boer War. After 
a good deal of hesitation between the two European Powers, 
the arguments of Count Hayashi prevailed, and Japan en- 
tered upon her fateful Convention with England of 1902 
which; renewed and confirmed in 1905 and again in 191 1, 
secured to Japan the opportunity for expanding and con- 
solidating her strength. This convention has already pro- 
duced results which were certainly not anticipated by the 
English Foreign Office when the agreement was entered 



Japan Tries Her Strength 139 

upon, nor by the House of Lords when its members rose 
and applauded its confirmation, upon Lord Lansdowne's 
entering that Assembly in 1905. 

No immediate results followed, beyond France's declara- 
tion that she stood by Russia, in the East as in the West. 
But the significance of the virtual Treaty of Alliance be- 
tween England and Japan — leaving aside altogether the 
latest clause which engaged Japan to safeguard British in- 
terests in India — was unmistakable. It was something more 
than an acknowledgment of Japan's equality with a great 
European nation, whose ancient domination over an em- 
pire in Asia placed her ahead of all her rivals. It was a 
manifest strengthening of Japan against Russia, in return 
for Asiatic support to a European Empire, whose Colonists 
excluded Japanese entirely from their shores. 

There is no need to recite the incidents which led up to 
the war between Japan and Russia. Enough to recall the 
well-known facts that the representatives of the Tsar in 
Eastern Asia, greatly underrating the force of their Asiatic 
opponent, and egged on by greed of gain from territories 
claimed by their Government, in defiance of the Japanese, 
deliberately provoked the war of 1904, They felt confi- 
dent that, in spite of all the disadvantages of carrying on a 
campaign at such a great distance from their base, and with 
only one railway line of supply over many thousands of 
miles, they would win with ease. The French were of the 
same opinion. Even men in high position, who ought to 
have been well informed, had no doubt whatever as to the 
result. To hint in Paris at the probability of a Japanese 
victory on the day when the Japanese crossed the Yalu, 
was taken as, in diplomatic language, "an unfriendly act." 
All Europe was misled even more completely than in the 
case of China. Russia never won a battle on land or on 
sea. Her over-confidence, incapacity, lack of adequate 
preparation and corruption gave the Japanese the victory. 



140 The Awakening of Asia 

They themselves believe, or affect to believe, that they 
were deprived of the full reward of their amazing success 
by the intervention of the United States and the forced 
Treaty of Portsmouth. Others, with no prejudice in favour 
of Russia, hold the opinion that, had the war continued, the 
Russians, who fought even better in the battle of Mukden 
than they did in their previous desperate and unfortunate 
engagements, would have won in the end. The discussion 
of such possibilities of the past is futile. Beyond the fact 
that Japan bears a grudge against America for having 
brought about peace at that juncture, the really important 
feature of the whole business is that Japan, then and there, 
took her place definitely as one of the great military and 
naval Powers of the world, established herself firmly as the 
leader of Asia against Europe, and virtually obtained all, 
and much more than all, of which she had been deprived by 
Russia's intervention, after she had crushed the Chinese, 
ten years earlier. 

Though the truth has not even yet been fully recog- 
nised, either in Europe or America, and England and her 
Colonies in particular have shut their eyes to obvious facts, 
Japan thenceforth stood forward as the champion of Asia 
against Europe. The centuries of European depredations 
in Asia had at last met with resistance so well organised and 
so successful that the new Asiatic Power at once leaped into 
the front rank. Who can wonder that with this triumph 
fresh in their minds, the Japanese should take further steps 
in the same direction ? It is one of the most trenchant pieces 
of practical irony in modern politics that Great Britain, 
with her huge Indian Empire, should have felt compelled, 
by the exigencies of European affairs, to aid Japan in se- 
curing a free hand in the East. 

"The mere fact that England has adopted this attitude 
shows that she is in dire need and she wants to use us to 
bear some of her burdens." Such was the late Count 



Japan Tries Her Strength 141 

Inouye's opinion in December, 1901. How the Japanese 
negotiators must have laughed in their sleeves, therefore, 
when Lord Lansdowne argued that, in return for British 
protection of Japanese interests in Korea, a Japanese under- 
taking to safeguard British interests in the Valley of the 
Yang-tse was insufficient! Japan must consequently agree 
as well to protect India for England ! Joseph Chamberlain 
supported Lord Lansdowne in that amazing contention. 
And this was before Japan had beaten Russia ! No wonder, 
I say, that after her remarkable campaign, "the manifest 
destiny" of the Island Empire shone out clear and bright 
before the cool, determined men who absolutely control 
Japan's foreign policy. 

Since then Japan has been working more assiduously 
than ever, in war and in peace, for the supremacy of the Far 
East — for the leadership of Asia. What, prior to the wars 
with China and Russia, had been an almost unconscious 
sense of possibility, a dim, disembodied aspiration towards 
a nebulous hegemony, became a definite object to be striven 
for persistently against all European nations, friends or 
enemies, who were likely to challenge Japanese policy. The 
"Open Door" in China, to which so much importance was 
attached by the Western Powers, was really accepted by 
Japan only as a form of words to cover a very different 
aim. There is no need to impute bad faith or turpitude to 
Japan on this account. She had never disguised from Eu- 
rope, from the time when China's weakness was disclosed 
in 1894, and Japan was forced to cancel her demands in 
1895, that she regarded her position in China as the basic 
preoccupation of her entire foreign policy. From the time 
of her victory over Russia, however, circumstances com- 
bined to give her statesmen one opportunity after another 
of strengthening her international influence. They were not 
slow to take advantage of these openings. They proved 



142 The Awakening of Asia 

neither more nor less unscrupulous than their European 
compeers. 

The Treaty of Portsmouth must ever be considered as a 
fresh and notable starting-point in the history of the re- 
lations between Europe and Asia. It recorded, for all 
time and in an unmistakable shape, the victory of an al- 
most unknown and remote Asiatic nation over an Empire 
which for generations had been regarded as a danger to Eu- 
rope, which had defeated and crushed an invasion headed 
by the greatest general of modern times, and, in spite of 
temporary halts, was marching forward, without haste and 
without rest, to dominant influence on the Pacific Ocean, 
combined with eventual control over Constantinople, Asia 
Minor and the Persian Gulf. So threatening to the world 
and to the ambitions of other Powers did the might of the 
Muscovite Empire appear before the Japanese War, that 
Germany, having obtained her foothold at Tsing Tau seven 
years earlier, rejoiced at the Treaties between England and 
Japan as constituting a balance to the strength of her 
formidable rival for places in the sun. 

But the Treaty of Portsmouth was only the commence- 
ment of a series of Treaties, Agreements, Extensions and 
Confirmations. By these Conventions Japan, while pledging 
herself time after time, and in the most formal manner, to 
respect the integrity and independence of China, nevertheless 
contrived to engineer herself into a poHtical and strategical 
situation that enabled her to use her various allies without 
being used by them. Thus in less than two years after 
that Peace between Russia and Japan, which secured to the 
latter freedom from interference in Korea, a hold on the 
Liaotung Peninsula and equal rights with all the European 
nations in China, the whole of the relations between the 
Powers was completely transformed. 

Three months of 1907 witnessed the signature of the 
Franco-Japanese Agreement in Paris; the Russo-Japanese 



Japan Tries Her Strength 143 

understanding in St. Petersburg; and the Anglo-Russian 
Convention likewise in St. Petersburg. The Ang'lo- 
Japanese Treaty remained as it had been confirmed in 1905. 
It was an era of accommodation all round. France took 
the lead with Japan in 1906, and a Japanese loan of 
£12,000,000 was issued in Paris on the virtual basis of 
an understanding between Russia and her late enemy. 
There was a general combination of the parties most closely 
interested. The policy of the independence and integrity 
of the Chinese Empire met with general acceptance, the 
United States joining in with the other three Powers, Eng- 
land, Russia and Japan, under the Agreement (Root- 
Takaliyu) of November, 1908. 

No wonder that there were fetes and rejoicings in 
Tokio. Japan could well afford to borrow European capi- 
tal by tens of millions sterling and use it to build up her 
internal prosperity, while waiting for the next opportu- 
nity to assert herself. No wonder, also, that Germany, 
taking no part in these various agreements, resented the 
success which, for the time being at any rate, attended 
them. The Kaiser suddenly descried the Yellow Peril writ 
large across the whole map of the Far East, and was not 
slow to proclaim his views to the world in 1908, the same 
year that the American Treaty with Japan was signed. 
This speech was followed up by a long series of German 
intrigues in China against Japanese influence, which had 
now virtually the silent support of the growing strength 
of the Triple Entente between England, France and Rus- 
sia. These intrigues only served to fortify that combina- 
tion so far as policy in the Far East was concerned. Nor 
did the endeavours of Germany to create differences be- 
tween England and Japan have any greater success. Japan 
indeed, with the consent, or at any rate without the active 
interference, of the Triple Entente, definitely annexed Ko- 
rea in 191 o — an extremely important step which attracted 



144 The Awakening of Asia 

far less attention than it ought to have done both in Eng- 
land and America. The independence and integrity of the 
Chinese Empire, to which Japan had pledged herself to 
the European Powers and the United States, was thus 
completely nullified and the "Open Door" was virtually 
closed in regard to Korea. 

That kingdom became thenceforth an integral part of 
the growing Japanese Empire, subject to its domination 
in every respect, and vastly increasing its power, in war 
as in peace. 

With the practical control of the Liaotung Peninsula 
Japan thus assumed a position on the mainland which 
threatened the independence of all Northern China, un- 
less the Chinese themselves should follow in the wake of 
the Islanders, throw aside their peaceful policy and imitate 
their rival by arming and training themselves efficiently 
on land and on sea according to the best European models. 
The appropriation of Korea showed more sharply than 
ever the real objects of Japanese statesmanship and gave 
clear indication of the lines along which it would move 
to attain them. Moreover, the tyranny and cruelty which 
accompanied the establishment of Japanese rule in Seoul 
and all over Korea proved conclusively that, courteous and 
persuasive as she might be in her intercourse with Western 
countries, Japan was, and would remain, thoroughly Asiatic 
in her way of dealing with any overt resistance to her 
authority or even moderate criticism of her policy. 

Unfortunately, the behaviour of European troops in 
India, China, Tonquin, Siberia and elsewhere in Asia has 
been of such a character that Japan has an easy retort at 
hand should she be reproached with excessive barbarity. 
For good or foi- ill, Korea was to the Japanese a con- 
quered country, and the mild Koreans had to accommo- 
date themselves as best they might to the efficient admin- 
istration of the descendants of the people whom their 



Japan Tries Her Strength 145 

ancestors had rescued from barbarism centuries before. 
The methods of subjugation employed were on the same 
level as those practised by the Japanese contingent in 
the advance to the relief of Peking during the Boxer siege 
and in Formosa after that island M^as conceded to Japan 
by China in 1895. Such an increase of population as 
Japan derived from these annexations greatly added to 
her power both of offence and defence, while the calm in- 
difference with which her European friends, Germany ex- 
cepted, viewed these changes could not but encourage her 
to make further progress on similar lines. 

One great advantage arose, nevertheless, from the vast 
array of agreements between the Allied Powers (as they 
have since become) and the Government of Tokio. When 
the revolution occurred in China in 191 1 — ^what time the 
Agadir question had brought Europe to the very brink 
of war — all the nations most directly interested in China's 
trade and solicitous about China's development, followed 
scrupulously, in accordance with their conventions, the 
policy of "hands off." They all, in fact, accepted the suc- 
cessful anti-Manchu revolt and acknowledged the Republic, 
whose leaders were shortly afterwards compelled to take 
refuge in Japan, When, however, the first President of 
the Republic, Yuan-Shi-Kai, after having secured loans 
from Europe, attempted to establish himself as Emperor 
after the Great War had begun, and even sent his son as 
Envoy to Berlin — ^then Japan put her veto on this arbi- 
trary step and forced the would-be usurper to abandon his 
project. 

With the Great War Japan made her appearance as 
the Ally of the Triple Entente in their resistance to the 
Central European Powers. And she, who in 191 1 had 
concluded Treaties of Commerce with her Allies on abso- 
lutely equal terms, now took up a position which promi- 
nently gave her the lead in Asiatic affairs — a lead which 



146 The Awakening of Asia 

she will retain until China herself fully wakes up to the 
facts of national existence. On August 15, 1914, Japan 
demanded from Germany the immediate surrender of Kiau 
Qiau. Declaration of war followed, and German war- 
ships were sunk. Tsing Tau was attacked and taken, with 
some 1,200 Anglo-Indian troops helping. The whole prov- 
ince of Shantung was at Japan's mercy, "to be returned to 
China after the war." The Caroline and Marshall Islands 
were likewise occupied. Japan also gained advantages in 
Manchuria, regardless of Chinese objections, having pre- 
viously joined with her Allies in the Pact of London to 
the effect that there should be no separate peace. 

As her portion of the Allied defence against Germany, 
the Japanese fleet has controlled the Pacific Ocean, and 
thus aided the Australian Colonies in giving support to 
England and the Entente generally. All this, while part 
of the general campaign, has served greatly to strengthen 
her own position. The better feeling with Russia which 
followed carried her still farther: first by the supply to 
Russia of large quantities of munitions which she did not 
require herself, and for which Great Britain paid, through 
her Muscovite Ally; and next by a Treaty with Russia, 
of which the only details known are that the two Powers 
mutually guarantee one another's territories in the East. 
Russia thus definitely and finally secured to Japan all and 
more than all for which the great Muscovite Empire had 
made war in 1904-5, and, besides, practically gave Japan 
a "free hand" in China. Thus of the non-Asiatic nations 
who had agreed with Japan to maintain the "Open Door" 
for all countries in the Chinese Empire, the United States 
alone was left unhampered, to oppose any plans that Jap- 
anese statesmen might have formed for the further exten- 
sion of the fixed policy of their country. This was the 
fact, and the United States realised it. 

Japan had made all necessary preparations to meet 



Japan Tries Her Strength 147 

any difficulties that might arise. She had established sev- 
eral thousand Japanese labourers within striking distance 
of the Panama Canal, she had made careful surveys of 
convenient landing-places in Mexico, notably at Tobolo- 
bampo, she had entered into relations with the Mexican 
leaders, she had drafted preliminary agreements with Ecua- 
dor, touching a naval station in the Galapagos Islands, 
and she had so placed herself in regard to the Philippines 
that the United States would find it impossible to keep 
control of those islands against her, permeated as they were 
with Japanese agents. 

Her position was also greatly strengthened by her oc- 
cupation of the Marshall Islands, while the numbers of 
Japanese employed in the Sandwich Islands — all trained 
men — made it extremely difficult for the United States to 
hold that strategically important group, m the event of war, 
even if there were no movement simultaneously among the 
Japanese in California. It has, at any rate, been made 
quite clear to the more observant of American publicists 
iand strategists that, should any serious trouble arise with 
Japan, they could not rely upon the Panama Canal. Either 
from neutral causes or from enemy attack that waterway 
might be interrupted at any moment. This meant that the 
American Naval Base would be not 3,000 or 4,000 but 14,- 
000 miles distant from the main theatre of hostilities. 
Therefore, though the American fleet was much more pow- 
erful numerically than the Japanese fleet, this superiority 
might not be brought into play soon enough to deal effec- 
tively with the Japanese vessels before all that Japan wished 
to achieve for the time being had been effected. 

Meanwhile, Japan has the lead in the Far East and 
seems likely to keep it. The majority of Enghshmen, and 
even the majority of Americans, who are still more closely 
concerned than Japan's Ally England with the policy of 
this powerful and ambitious State, have but a superficial 



148 The Awakening of Asia 

idea of the possible spread of its influence in the near 
future. Yet this is not for want of warning. Americans 
in particular have been told by their own countrymen, mili- 
tary officers as well as civilians, who have specially studied 
the subject, about the sort of antagonism which may lie 
ahead. Germans, too, who regarded the problem of the 
Far East and the Pacific Ocean from a totally different 
point of view, went into the matter with their customary 
thoroughness before the war, and expressed virtually the 
same opinion. They believe that Japan is preparing, with 
the same relentless efficiency which she displayed in mak- 
ing ready for her campaigns against China and Russia, to 
deal with the United States when time and opportunity 
offer. 

Americans themselves freely admit that the still rising 
Power of Asia has ample grounds for serious ill-feeling 
against the Great Republic. Breaches of international law 
and national pledges have been committed by the United 
States Government time after time. The 1 50,000 Japanese 
— mostly trained soldiers, by the way — who have taken 
the place of the Chinese on the Pacific Slope are regarded 
with the same hostility as their forerunners from the main- 
land of Asia. A massacre of the Japanese immigrants, 
before they could organise and defend themselves, was 
not long ago considered possible. Since then the Japanese 
Government has itself checked the emigration of its sub- 
jects to America, and a settlement has been temporarily 
arrived at. 

But, if we are to judge these able and far-seeing peo- 
ple and their statesmen by what we ourselves should do in 
a similar case, it seems very unlikely that they will submit 
permanently to such a badge of inferiority as this arrange- 
ment implies, especially since the Californians make no 
secret of their contempt and dislike for their unwelcome 
guests. Moreover, not only racial, but commercial, an- 



Japan Tries Her Strength 149 

tagonisms are at work. It is well known that the great 
American manufacturing Trusts have need of the outlet 
offered by the markets of China, where Japanese influence 
and Japanese cheapness are already gaining ground in 
rivalry with them. There is a httle Socialism in Japan 
and more in America ; but its votaries will not be numerous 
or powerful enough in either country to stave off a capi- 
talist war, sooner or later, unless other circumstances ren- 
der them great assistance. The policy of the Japanese in 
Mexico and the South American States also threatens 
American capitalist interests. 

Recent events have greatly changed the situation. 
The United States having been driven, by the German pol- 
icy of unlimited outrage and piracy on the high seas, into 
making common cause with the Allies of the Entente 
against the Central Pow'ers, has found herself obliged 
to constitute an effective army and to strengthen her navy. 
This is a complete alteration of the general attitude of the 
great American Republic which cannot fail eventually to 
have its influence in the Pacific. Japan is no longer face 
to face with a Power of enormous wealth and resources, 
addicted to peace at any price, and unprepared to encoun- 
ter organised and efficient attack. Moreover, the U.S.A. 
is now practically in alliance not only with Great Britain 
(hitherto a "suspect" country on the American side of the 
Atlantic), France and Russia, but also with Japan her- 
self. Europe has been "bled white" by the war : America 
has not. Though, therefore, the policy of Japan can 
scarcely change its ultimate intention, there will be a greater 
obstacle in the path of its immediate realisation. The an- 
tagonism of interests remains, but Japan is not the only 
Power which has gained strength by the war. The United 
States has so far done the same. 

We need not, however, take General Homer Lea's 
pessimistic pre-war view about Japan's possible attack upon 



150 The Awakening of Asia 

California in order to understand that, if Japan means to 
have her own way in China, it will be exceedingly difficult 
for the United States to prevent her, as matters stand to- 
day in Europe. What may come after the war no one can 
say. Even the League of Nations would find it no easy 
matter to withstand the claim of "Asia for the Asiatics" 
championed by Japan. Japan's demands upon China of 
January i8th, 19 15, followed by the surrender of the Chi- 
nese Republic on points which entirely destroy the figment 
of the territorial integrity of China and close the open 
door of more than one great province, show that the whole 
question of her policy on the Pacific Ocean hangs upon 
her relations to that vast country. Japan will no more 
allow the United States to interfere with her policy in that 
respect than she permitted Russia to do so. 

Japanese emigration and the relation of Japanese set- 
tlers to the American Government and the American States 
are small matters compared with the leadership of the 
Asiatic peoples to which Japan aspires and has partially 
attained. Since the Great War has vastly improved not 
only her political but her financial position, and since the 
comparatively moderate Count Okuma has been succeeded 
first by the militarist Terauchi as Prime Minister, and then 
by a democratic party Government, it is still possible 
that we shall hear of more demands against the independ- 
ence of China. In that case, although Sun Yat Sen has 
thought it safe to return to Shanghai, the death of Huang- 
Hsu, who had the confidence of the new Chinese soldiery, 
is a very serious loss to the great peaceful Federation of 
Provinces which calls itself the Chinese Republic. These 
are the days when the kingdoms of peace suffer violence 
and the violent take them by storm. The tale of the West 
may soon be told again in the East. 

It is natural and, in my judgment, praiseworthy, that 
Japan should resent, and endeavour to render impossible for 



Japan Tries Her Strength 151 

ever, the sort of treatment which we Europeans have dealt 
out to China and other parts of Asia for centuries, Eng- 
land, Russia, France, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Spain, 
have all had a hand in this infamous business. It could 
scarcely be surprising, therefore, if Asia should strive to 
avenge upon Europe some of the horrors of the past, as she 
gains strength and puts the methods of civilised warfare 
at the disposal of fully three-fifths of the human race. 

That is a growing danger which our descendants may 
have to face. But that Japan should use the present ter- 
rible state of affairs in Europe to impose upon the unwilling 
population of China — possessing even by the admission of 
the highest Japanese statesmen qualities superior to their 
own — is a policy which ought to be resisted as soon as pos- 
sible, if the Chinese themselves desire help against this ag- 
gression. The Japanese are not popular in Asia, and their 
unpopularity has undoubtedly increased during the past four 
years. On the other hand, whatever their differences may 
be, Asiatics understand one another at bottom far better 
than they understand, or trust, or like, Europeans, or Ameri- 
cans. This the United States is beginning to comprehend. 
It may be as well for other nationalities of the West to con- 
sider the whole situation from this point of view. 

Particularly is this the case with Great Britain. Not 
only does she still hold the leading position in trade with 
China, but, on the whole. Englishmen get on better with 
the Chinese than do any other Europeans. So long as com- 
petitive commerce exists, therefore, and political influence 
helps the nation which does this large business, the appear- 
ance on the scene of an active competitor close at hand, well 
versed in the Chinese language and Chinese ways, is of the 
utmost importance. Japanese traders take more pains, are 
content with smaller profits and are ready to deal, on a 
smaller scale, with inferior products to those which English 
merchants are disposed to handle. They do not gain 



152 The Awakening of Asia 

ground rapidly because they have a lower standard of 
commercial morality than that to which the Chinese pro- 
ducers and traders have been accustomed, and certain very 
doubtful transactions in the purchase of Chinese currency 
did them harm during the war, when everything was in 
their favour. 

But, in spite of everything, Japanese merchants and 
traffickers will probably make great way in China in the 
near future. Even keen personal dislike and contempt for 
sharp practice can scarcely head back permanently the 
commercial advance of those who, in addition to the ad- 
vantages of language and race, possess superior adaptabil- 
ity, greater assiduity, are content with smaller profits, and, 
above all, sell cheap goods. Now that Japan has added 
to all this persistent and threatening political pressure upon 
the Chinese Government the acquisition of "spheres of in- 
fluence" and vast stretches of territory which close the 
open door to all trade but her own, obviously it will be 
no easy matter for Europeans to keep up their commerce 
with China on the present scale. England, the close Ally 
of Japan, begins to feel her rivalry, in spite of all Treaty 
obligations, as much as the United States, which can 
scarcely be considered a very friendly Power, though cir- 
cumstances have made the American Republic practically 
an Ally of the Island Empire. The battle of industrial 
and trading competition will go steadily on in war as in 
peace, in peace as in war. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE MISTRESS OF ASIA 

In the early part of 191 6, owing to the adverse criticism 
of Japanese policy in China, not only by English resi- 
dents but by a portion of the English Press, the Japan 
Times obtained and published the considered opinions of 
all the leading Japanese statesmen, bankers, financiers and 
journalists as to the Anglo-Japanese Treaties of Alliance. 
They practically did not differ about the great value of 
these to Japan. The abrogation of them, by either side, 
was unanimously regarded as almost inconceivable and 
highly injurious. Some modifications might be made grow- 
ing out of changed conditions, but the basis of the Treaties 
must remain untouched. The general agreement is re- 
markable : 

Thus, Count Okuma, then Prime Minister, while in- 
sisting upon the necessity for all the Allies to "stick to- 
gether" in order to defeat Germany, goes on to say: *T 
assert positively, without any fear of successful contra- 
diction, that Japan is loyal to her Alliance, friendly to 
Great Britain and faithful to all her undertakings. The 
Anglo-Japanese Alliance is just as strong to-day as ever 
it was. Japan benefits by the Alliance, and so does Great 
Britain." 

Count Terauchi, the successor of Count Okuma as 
Premier, was for some years Viceroy and Governor-Gen- 
eral of Korea, and is generally regarded in Europe as 
the leader of the militarist, annexationist and anti-Chinese 
section of Japanese politics. It is claimed for him that, 

153 



154 The Awakening of Asia 

since 1910, he has been a most successful administrator 
on the mainland and that, owing to his stern but honest 
rule, Korea, which he found in poverty and squalor, is 
now prosperous and contented. He gives it as his view 
that the Anglo-Japanese Alliance has been of great mu- 
tual benefit, as has been amply demonstrated, and adds : "I 
most firmly believe that the relations between Japan and 
Great Britain are too amicable and stand on too firm a 
footing to be shaken." 

Baron Kato, who has been four times Foreign Min- 
ister as well as Ambassador in London, and is now the 
leader of the most influential party in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, goes more into detail and is even more posi- 
tive on the same side. On January ist, 191 5, before the 
amazing demands made by Japan upon China on the i8th 
of the same month, he set forth his position at length in 
an important Japanese journal : "It matters not who takes 
the reins of government in this country or what Cabinet 
is in power, our attitude towards England and the Alli- 
ance will remain the same. ... It is the rock on which 
our foreign policies stand. All other ententes or agree- 
ments are merely supplementary to this main plank in our 
national platform. No ministerial change can alter this 
position or this policy. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance 
stands for the peace of the Far East. If any man thinks 
this Alliance was conceived or entered into simply because 
it might be useful in times of war, he is mistaken. In its 
relation to the situation in China, for instance, the Alliance 
is one of peaceful guardianship, safeguarding China's in- 
tegrity and the principle of equal opportunity" — equal op- 
portunity in Korea, the Liaotung Peninsula and Fukien! — 
"which are as essential in conserving the interests of Japan 
as those of Great Britain. So long as the Anglo-Japanese 
Alliance stands, no power can break the integrity of China 
or really threaten the principle of equal opportunity" — 



The Mistress of Asia 155 

Again — "The Anglo-Japanese Alliance has vastly increased 
the prestige of Japan. . . . But the Anglo-Japanese Al- 
liance is beneficial to Great Britain also. During the pres- 
ent war, Great Britain has been able to withdraw her ships 
from the Far East; whereas, if the Alliance had not been 
active and actively carried out by Japan, a considerable 
portion of the British fleet must have been sent to these 
waters." 

Baron Takahashi, the leader of the Opposition in the 
House of Peers and a statesman of great experience in 
finance, who was extremely distrustful of the administra- 
tions in which Count Okuma and afterwards Count 
Terauchi were Prime Ministers, nevertheless is of the same 
opinion as his political adversaries on this particular mat- 
ter. Thus : "The leading men of this country — the men 
of all classes, occupations of political leanings — are in 
sympathy with Great Britain and the Allies. A consensus 
of the well-balanced opinion of the Empire will show the 
whole people to be in perfect accord with upholding the 
Anglo- Japanese Alliance. This is true in political, social, 
educational and economic circles. There is, in fact, no real 
division of opinion." 

Baron Shibusawa, the greatest financier of Japan, a 
man seventy-six years of age, who, capable Americans say, 
got the better of them all round when on a visit to the 
United States, joins in the general chorus of approbation 
of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. This is as important an 
adhesion to the policy as any of the preceding, and Baron 
Shibusawa is supported by most influential bankers and 
commercial men. 

On the other hand, while agreeing also as to the value 
of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, he recognises that there 
is some ground for the objection that Great Britain is 
getting the best of the bargain. Such a man as the emi- 
nent journalist, Mr. Matsuyama, denounces the attitude 



156 The Awakening of Asia 

of the British in the Far East. These people, he avers, 
especially the residents in China, show a tendency to dis- 
like the Japanese. This is undoubtedly true of the dwellers 
in Peking and Shanghai, and it would be advisable if they 
could cultivate a little more of Asiatic courtesy and calm- 
ness. The day has gone by when either Japanese or Chi- 
nese can be treated with arrogance or disrespect. And, as 
Mr. Matsuyama truly remarks, Englishmen generally, and 
English merchants in the East in particular, were pre- 
served from the great dangers which they would certainly 
have encountered had Japan been even a neutral in the 
war. But this editor winds up by asserting that "the 
Anglo-Japanese Alliance is absolutely necessary for both 
Great Britain and Japan. After the war Germany may 
attempt to regain her influence in the Orient with renewed 
vigour, and may attempt to wreak vengeance, especially 
on Japan. . . . The Anglo-Japanese Alliance should be the 
basis of all diplomacy in the Far East." 

Baron Megata puts the crux of the whole matter most 
clearly and forcibly, while admitting that the English 
Alliance is of the greatest service to Japan and ought to 
be maintained in order to preserve peace in the Far East. 
But one primordial consideration weighs with Japan and 
must never be overlooked by Great Britain. Here it is : 
"Japan is the next door neighbour of China, and Japan 
is the most deeply concerned in the maintenance of peace 
in the Orient. Therefore, because of this propinquity,* 
geographically and economically, Japan must be prompt 
to assert her opinion, exert her influence and insist upon 
her rights in China, in order to prevent waste by conflagra- 
tion, breaches of the peace and illegal procedure. ... So 
long as this is done and clearly understood, so long as 
rights of position and sincerity of purpose are recognised 

♦This same word is used by Mr. Lansing in his recent Note to 
Count Ishii. 



The Mistress of Asia 157 

by the people of the two nations, all will go well and there 
will be nothing to stay or to hinder the working of the 
Anglo- Japanese Alliance, or the progress of good under- 
standing between the two peoples." 

Surely that is plain enough and throws a startling light 
upon all the previous expressions of good will. Let the 
reader note these passages from the mouth of Japanese 
of the first standing in every department, and take them 
in conjunction with the demands upon China by Japan 
already recorded. It is useless to disguise the truth. Japan 
is aiming at domination in China and relies upon the Anglo- 
Japanese Alliance to help her to attain this great end. 

The integrity of Chinese territory and the "Open Door" 
which constitute the basis of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance 
may be given up by Great Britain for some temporary and 
dishonourable advantage in the Far East. But, however 
much we may respect and admire Japan, however anxious 
we may be to believe in her desire to act in accordance 
with her pledges, we must look at the position as it really 
is. The Japanese claim a controlling voice in the future 
of China, with her enormous population and her vast po- 
tential wealth. They are on the high road to secure it, 
regardless of Great Britain or any other nation. What 
this may mean to the world at large can be judged by 
those who read the recent history of Japan. All other de- 
tails of world-policy may ere long seem trifling in compari- 
son with this. The suicide of the white race may leave the 
planet open to the supremacy of the yellow. 

We have been accustomed, for an entire generation, to 
read and hear of the charm, the taste, the simplicity, the 
courtesy, the cleanliness, the self-sacrifice, the cheerfulness, 
the intelligence of the Japanese. Their courage, their de- 
votion, their high conception of individual, family and 
patriotic duty have also been most picturesquely put be- 
fore us in the present as well as in the past. The delightful 



158 The Awakening of Asia 

style and poetic imagination of Lafcadio Hearn and other 
pleasing writers have thrown a glamour over the whole 
Archipelago, No Asiatics have ever been brought so close 
to us by Europeans of genius and by their own admirably 
organised system of publicity and propaganda in the na- 
tional interest. There is, in fact, a fascination about the 
Island Empire which has obscured for us until lately the 
appreciation of the serious side of Japanese character and 
policy. Now we tend possibly to exaggerate the influence 
and power of the great rival to European trade and Euro- 
pean polity in the Far East. But our late ally Russia, on 
the one hand, and our enemy Germany, on the other, both 
show clearly, the one by a Treaty virtually acknowledging 
the dominant position of Japan, the other by continuous 
efforts to come to terms with Japan in some way (despite 
the contemptuous attitude of Japanese statesmen), that 
they now fully recognise the change that has taken place. 
Great Britain, France and the United States ought not, 
therefore, to be less clear-sighted in the matter. 



CHAPTER XII 

INDUSTRIAL JAPAN 

From the earliest days when Japan began to reorganise 
the superstructure of her society so that she might hold 
her own against European dictation on land and on sea, 
she set to work also to reconstitute the whole industry 
of the country on similar lines so far as they were suited 
to Asiatic customs and laws. The progress of Japan has 
been from military and naval development to the improve- 
ments in agriculture and manufacture necessary to main- 
tain great fighting forces. Japan to-day has an army and 
a navy at least twice as strong as they were at the close 
of the Russo-Japanese War. The general opinion of those 
best qualified to judge is that she will not be contented until 
they are at least twice their present strength and that her 
navy in its various departments may be able to hold its 
own against any force that the United States at a critical 
moment could bring round Cape Horn into Japanese 
waters. 

Now, Japan is still a poor country compared with such 
nations as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, or the 
United States. Even the Empire of Russia before the war 
was considerably richer than Japan. How, then, is the Is- 
land Empire, even with its present population of some 
70,000,000, including nowadays Korea, Formosa and the 
Liaotung Peninsula, to pay interest on its large foreign 
loans and bear at the same time the weight of these heavy 
armaments? This question was faced by Japanese states- 
men at a very early period in the record of the new de- 

159 



i6o The Awakening of Asia 

velopment. They saw at once that it was useless to enter 
upon such an ambitious policy as that which opened out 
before them, especially after their successful war with 
Qiina, unless they adapted all possible modern improve- 
ments in agriculture, manufacture, transport, railways, 
shipping, finance and mining. The education of the people 
must also accompany this activity. Thus alone could Japan 
hope to continue on the upward path which her leaders 
had traced for her. Nothing was omitted which could lead 
to the attainment of her object. 

Mistakes were made in some directions, of course; but 
never in any European country, not even in Germany, was 
the complete programme of the industrial and social trans- 
formation of a nation carried out so systematically as in 
Japan. Here, as in the army and navy, European ideas 
were used and adapted, but European influence was never 
at any moment allowed to dominate. There were those 
who hoped, the writer among them, that the Japanese, who 
had examined and criticised the advantages and defects of 
modern European society, would have done their utmost 
to avoid the terrible mischief caused to any working popu- 
lation by the introduction of unrestrained capitalism, the 
great factory industries and the consequent bitter competi- 
tion for a mere subsistence wage by men, women and chil- 
dren. Little or no attempt has been made in this direction. 
The results, as will be seen later, are deplorable. Japanese 
industrial Imperialism, like happy-go-lucky commercialism 
in Great Britain, has been a curse to the people. 

But the economic change from national poverty to com- 
parative national affluence is being brought about none the 
less. The natural skill of the people, their power of adapta- 
tion and their personal industry, when combined with the 
most improved machinery and a low rate of wages, are 
rendering them very formidable competitors in the world 
market, while there has been none of that fatal neglect 



Industrial Japan i6i 

of agriculture, whose full effect England must now experi- 
ence. It is, in fact, sad to put the clearly-thought-out 
methodical advance of Japan in her combination of home 
defence and warlike strength, with unceasing internal de- 
velopment, beside the floimdering incapacity displayed by 
England during the present generation. The contrast is 
humiliating to anyone who takes the trouble tO' investigate 
the facts. 

Agriculture is, and always has been, by far the most 
important industry of Japan, and the growth of manufac- 
tures and commerce has not induced the Government to 
neglect this, the foundation of all sound national pros- 
perity. They have recognised, as a recent writer has stated, 
that "it is no exaggeration to say that upon agriculture 
and agriculturists depends the existence of the Empire." 
The small cultivators, whose average holdings are not 
larger than those of the Chinese peasantry, constitute the 
healthiest and most vigorous class in the Empire : the men 
who did the best of the fighting against China and Russia 
and are the backbone of the Japanese armies to-day. The 
land itself is not fertile, and the climate is not specially fa- 
vourable for tillage. Consequently, rural life is hard and 
the standard of subsistence low. Home industry of all 
kinds is brought in to increase the product of the family 
and relieve them from actual hardship. The more for- 
tunate, who are engaged in the silk and weaving indus- 
tries, owning at the same time their plots of land, are the 
best off, and stand in much the same position as the culti- 
vators and weavers of the eighteenth century in the north 
of England, or the small vignerons of southern France. 
Those of the agricultural population who have to pay rent 
to landlords, or till the land for large proprietors, are worse 
off. The tendency also of the rural population to drift into 
the cities, in search of high wages and relief from exces- 
sive and ungrateful toil, is growing in Japan as elsewhere. 



i62 The Awakening of Asia 

Including the output of all departments of home indus- 
try of every kind, the total annual value of the products 
of agriculture is put at an average of £156,000,000 a year 
from a population of upwards of 30,000,000 engaged in 
work upon the soil, or less than £5 per head gross, exclu- 
sive of taxation or cost of manures. These make a deduc- 
tion from this total of nearly 15s. per head. Reckoned in 
money, therefore, the total income of a family of five 
persons of the agricultural class dependent upon the soil 
does not exceed £20 a year, in return for the exhausting 
labour of man, vv^oman and children. This is large, no 
doubt, in comparison with the return obtained by the pauper 
ryots of British India, but it is a poor remuneration, even 
when compared with the ill-paid and badly-housed agri- 
cultural labourers of southern England. 

Only seventeen per cent, of the total. area of Japan is 
cultivated, and the character of the remainder displays lit- 
tle probability of any great extension. As the population 
is increasing so fast that it can scarcely be absorbed in 
the cities, the question of emigration will probably become 
more pressing as years go on. This must be considered 
in all discussion of Japan's foreign policy, and its solution 
will become more important should she combine with China 
in a demand for a free outlet for her surplus labourers to 
unoccupied or sparsely-peopled territories. For obviously, if 
a family of five on the average receives no more than eight 
shillings a week, reckoned in our currency, though the 
small freeholders may get more for their labour, the oc- 
cupiers, who pay to the landowner nearly a half of their 
gross produce, and the labourer for wages, who has no 
property, must receive less; and it is from these classes 
that the emigrants to California and other territories are 
chiefly drawn. 

Nevertheless, the efforts of the Japanese Government 
and the intelligence and industry of the people, accom- 



Industrial Japan 163 

panied by a reduction of agricultural taxation, are pro- 
ducing remarkable results. The most recent statistics 
available show that although the extent of cultivated land 
has not very greatly increased, the average yield per acre 
has improved steadily in the past twenty years, and there 
is every reason to believe that this upward tendency will 
still continue, though not at the same rate. What may be 
achieved by direct and capable State intervention is shown 
in the case of tobacco, where by careful attention and selec- 
tion a smaller cultivated area and lessened production brings 
in a higher return owing to improved quality. A Govern- 
ment Commission is constantly engaged in introducing ad- 
vantageous methods of culture and substituting animals 
and machinery for direct human labour wherever this is 
found profitable. 

But important as agriculture is and must ever remain 
for Japan — if her statesmen retain their capacity of cor- 
rectly judging the national interests — she relies upon her 
advance in the great modern industries for the means to 
hold permanently the position which she has gained by 
her wars and her diplomacy. She has not, however, ad- 
vanced in this respect as much as she required, or as her 
leaders hoped. It is easy to understand the enormous diffi- 
culty of introducing into an agricultural country, almost at 
a blow as it were, and without any thorough preparation 
or training, the complete paraphernalia of modem industry 
and manufacture. The wonder is not that Japan has failed 
in the course of a generation to rival fully the great in- 
dustrial countries, which had so long a start of her on the 
markets of the world, but that she has been able to achieve 
so much within so short a period. 

Had she not assumed the necessity for a policy of 
aggression and expansion on the mainland and the con- 
stant endeavour to secure a dominant position in China, 
Japan would already have established her domestic con- 



164 The Awakening of Asia 

cems and foreign trade upon a thoroughly sound basis. In 
less than thirty years her exports and imports have in- 
creased more than fifteen-fold; she has freed her hands 
from the trammels of commercial conventions with foreign 
nations and can impose such protective duties as she pleases ; 
she has ceased to be dependent upon external sources for 
warships and munitions; she has built up and is extending 
an important mercantile marine; and just at the time when 
her financial circumstances had become rather strained, the 
great world war, which means something not far short of 
ruin to her Allies, enabled Japan, after the fall of Tsing- 
Tau and the destruction of German sea power in the East, 
to supply Russia, at the cost of England, with quantities 
of munitions at a large profit to herself. 

Japanese impatience at the rate of progress seems due 
rather to the excitability of a new-born nation than to 
that cool, unbiassed judgment of events to which we have 
been accustomed in Japan's foreign and Colonial policy. 
This last remarkable turn of industrial and financial events 
in favour of Japan shows itself in an unmistakable manner 
in the recent statistics of her exports and imports. 

Thus agriculture, mining, manufacture advancing; com- 
merce steadily growing; population increasing, apart from 
the 17,000,000 added in 1910 by the annexation of Korea 
to the inhabitants of Japan proper; and now the economic 
advantage due to the Great War : all together give Japan 
the position at home which enables her to take a bold line 
abroad. 

Nor can we fail to see that the Government is pur- 
suing with the 53,000,000 of Japanese and 17,000,000 of 
Koreans, forming the solid combination of 70,000,000, a 
home policy which, from the capitalist point of view, is 
calculated to strengthen her still further. It is lamentable, 
for instance, to compare what Japan is doing in the matter 
of education and scientific training of her children and 



Industrial Japan 165 

young people with what we English are doing in India. 
In Great Britain itself, English school training is in many 
respects behind Japanese; and the criminal neglect and 
inefficiency of English elementary schooling during the last 
four years has increased this inferiority. There are no 
fewer than 7,000,000 children in the elementary schools of 
Japan and 500,000 youths in the special and technical 
schools. The helping hand of Government is extended 
throughout, and students are encouraged and aided in their 
endeavour to improve their efficiency by foreign travel and 
investigation. - So excellent, likewise, are the Japanese 
educational establishments and Universities that thousands 
of Chinese are now going to Japan in order to acquire that 
modern knowledge from the West which the Chinese them- 
selves recognise is indispensable to the development of their 
country, but which they are unable to furnish at home. 
Japan is providing not merely military and naval but in- 
tellectual leadership for the hundreds of millions of the 
vast Empire by whose inhabitants she is nevertheless dis- 
liked and despised. 

When, also, we speak of Japan as mainly an agricul- 
tural country, this, though true in itself, gives an inade- 
quate conception of the great strength of the urban popula- 
tion, which is increasing in Japan as in other civilised 
countries. Apart from Tokio with its 2,000,000 inhabi- 
tants, and Osaka with 1,400,000, there are five other cities 
which have together a population of 2,000,000, and there 
are in all sixty-six towns with a population of over 30,000 
each. Moreover, the greater part of the larger cities and 
towns are massed together in comparison with the total 
area of the Japanese islands. Railways now connect the 
main industrial and agricultural centres, supplementing the 
admirable water communications by sea and canal. 

This concentration of industrialism and improvement 
in transport combine to make Japan a centre of material 



1 66 The Awakening of Asia 

influence which can scarcely fail to increase her pressure 
upon China in time to come. A glance at the map shows 
how this long procession of islands from Saghalien to 
Formosa, lying like a series of wharves along the coast 
of Eastern Asia, with its outposts and inlets at Korea, 
on the Liaotung Peninsula, at Kiau Chau, and now at 
Fukien, gives Japan an enormous commercial as well as a 
strategical advantage in the competitive war of the near 
future as compared with her rivals in Europe or in Amer- 
ica. Never in history was so remarkably favourable a 
geographical situation in the hands of one nation, controlled 
by men capable of taking full advantage of it and looking 
to the future of Asia as in some sort the heritage of the 
Japanese race. 

When we consider the question of labour, of wages, 
or the domination of capital, of physical endurance under 
the new industrial conditions, the outlook for Japan is 
not so favourable for permanent success. Unless, in this 
department as in others, the Japanese are ready to deal with 
and remedy the defects of a ruthless system of material and 
personal exploitation, they may find the ground break under 
them later. 

The old Japan is being destroyed by capitalism, and 
it is still doubtful whether Japanese labourers and artisans 
are so well suited to face the pressure of the intermediate 
period as the more physically powerful as well as more 
stolid Chinese. The extremely pacific, long-suffering and 
persistent nature of the Chinese tells in their favour. As 
competitors in agriculture on the mainland and in hard 
manual work of all kinds it is said that the Japanese have 
already proved unable to hold their own against Chinese 
or even Koreans. So likewise in factories. Employers 
can get more effective and more continuous work out of 
Chinese than out of Japanese. Since women almost en- 
tirely take the place of men in Japanese textile industries, 



Industrial Japan 167 

Japan may have the advantage for the time being, but in 
the long run such toil as is now enforced upon Japanese 
women must certainly deteriorate their progeny, as it has 
in Great Britain and the United States. The factory sys- 
tem as a whole has not been pushed so far as it has been 
in Europe, and the awful horrors of Lancashire and York- 
shire in the first half of the nineteenth century have not 
yet been reproduced to their full extent in Japan. 

But when we read of "factories buzzing night and 
day; thousands of young girls still contracting to live for 
three years in a 'compound,' like so many peas in a pod, 
and to work in the mills for twelve hours per day one 
week and twelve hours per night the next" ; when we bear 
in mind that these female wage-slaves coming mostly from 
the country districts, the daughters of small agriculturists, 
receive as wages from fourpence to sevenpence a day for 
twelve hours of exhausting toil; when we further con- 
sider that in all trades, though wages are rising, the cost 
of mere subsistence is increasing still more — when we sum 
all this up, we can see that Japan, by plunging headlong 
into unrestrained competitive capitalism, is running social 
risks against which the sad experience of our own and 
other countries might well have warned her. Nothing more 
horrifies foreigners who visit Japan or touch at Japanese 
ports than to see women with children strapped on their 
backs, coaling the great steamers as they come in. This 
is fairly typical of what was going on until the introduction 
of none too stringent Japanese Factory Acts in 191 1. 

In fact, the old personal and kindly relations between 
masters and workers, which formed a portion of the an- 
cient days of Japan, and lasted up to the great change, are 
disappearing. It is as if the British Middle Age feudalism 
and guild system, with all its restrictions and castes and 
regulations and grades, had been plunged at a stroke into 
the purely competitive, laisses-faire, pecuniary capitalism 



i68 The Awakening of Asia 

of the nineteenth century. Even in England, we have not 
yet understood that children are the most important por- 
tion of any community; though this truth is well known 
to, and acted upon by, many savage tribes. In Japan chil- 
dren's vitality is sapped, their intelligence stunted, and 
their morality imperilled by endless factory work. The 
lessons of Europe have not been learned. There is reason, 
however, to hope that much more vigorous steps will be 
taken as the sane and sensible part of the nation wakes 
up to the truth, and the workers gain influence as a class. 
In the meantime, Japan may be said to form the classic- 
al example of fulfilment of the prediction that wherever 
capitalism, with its attendant competition, great factory in- 
dustry, production for profit and wage-slavery gains 
ground, there Socialism will assuredly follow. There are 
countries such as Finland, France and Italy, where although 
the great industries have not by any means reached their 
full development, yet Socialism, owing to various causes, 
has made rapid progress. In Japan the rise of capitalism 
has been accompanied at once by a development of So- 
cialism. Of course, therefore, we find the Japanese capi- 
talists, with their attendant professors, hard at work to 
prove that there is not, and ought not to be, any antago- 
nism between capital and labour. For them there is no 
class war. The labourers, they say, who sell their power 
to labour as a class to the capitalists as a class, are directly 
interested in seeing their employers get rich. These em- 
ployers, it is true, become wealthy by taking all the wealth 
the labourers create over and above the bare subsistence 
wages paid. But the more surplus value they obtain by 
this process the more labourers they are able to employ. 
Consequently, labourers should do their utmost to increase 
the productiveness of labour in order that additional re- 
alised capital should be at the disposal of the great organ- 
isers of industry. Such harmony is in profiteering souls! 



Industrial Japan 169 

The workers of Japan seem to have unconsciously re- 
volted against this new religion of the slave-drivers mod- 
ernised, before Socialism gained any hold. Huge masses 
of men, scarcely even organised in their trades, recognised 
indistinctly that their interests were one as against their 
masters. So formidable did the expression of this general 
opinion, in the form of public meetings and demonstra- 
tions, threaten to be, that at the very commencement they 
were suppressed by the police. The old story in regard to 
any attempt by the people to emancipate themselves and 
use machinery for the common good. Socialism gave a 
scientific, historic basis to the working-class unrest. 

But this advance did not come at once. The efforts of 
Tokichi Tariu and Shimosu Inagaki in the early 'eighties 
failed to obtain any support, although trade unionism had 
already made considerable progress, notably among the 
railway servants. Whatever work may have been done 
privately, no definite association was formed until 1889 
for the express purpose of investigating Social-Democratic 
teaching. This was called the Society for the Study of 
Socialism. The names of the principal founders were the 
two Socialists given above, with Isoh Abe, Sen Katayama, 
Sakuma and Miyake. "At their regular meetings they gave 
in turn lectures on such eminent Socialists as St. Simon, 
Fourier, Proudhon, Marx, etc., and on the principles laid 
down by them. This Association lasted for two years, 
and during that time some of the members advocated So- 
cialism and others were opposed to it. But at the end of 
1900 the Association decided to take up active work, and 
consequently it was deemed essential that it should consist 
of Socialist members only: the non-Socialist members 
thereupon withdrew, and the title was changed to The So- 
cialistic Society." 

Early in 1901 the Japanese Social-Democratic Party 



1 70 The Awakening of Asia 

was formed. It was immediately dissolved by the Gov- 
ernment. Here is the programme issued by the leaders : 

1. To extend the principle of Universal Brotherhood. 

2. To enforce disarmament for the sake of Universal 
Peace. 

3. To abolish the existing system of class distinctions. 

4. To establish public ownership in land and capital. 

5. To establish public ownership in means of communi- 
cation, such as railways and ships. 

6. To equalise distribution of wealth. 

7. To equalise the distribution of political rights. 

8. To make the State bear the expense of free education 
for the people. 

This is manifestly as complete a revolutionary series 
of proposals as has ever been set forth in any civilised 
country. In some respects it is simpler and more intelli- 
gible than most of the programmes of the same kind that 
I have seen in other languages. No wonder that the Jap- 
anese Government, at that time wholly devoted to capital- 
ism and its concomitant economic and social oppression of 
the mass of the people, refused to allow fair play to the 
Social Democrats. Even their immediate practical pro- 
posals leading up to the realisation of these great ideals 
were regarded as harmful to the Government. Katayama 
and others were ordered by the police to dissolve the party, 
and all attempt to revive it under another name was at 
once suppressed. 

Thus deprived of any opportunity for open propaganda, 
the Social Democrats were compelled to devote themselves 
to economic education only. Before and during the Rus- 
sian War the Japanese Social Democrats joined with those 
whom we may call Socialistic Radicals in an agitation 



Industrial Japan 171 

against the whole policy of the Government. This led to 
further persecution. 

Nevertheless, they made progress, and by degrees the 
pretence of fear of a dangerous secret society brought with 
it the form of repression to which Socialists of all countries 
are accustomed. Imprisonment, suppression of newspapers 
and then official prosecutions, condemnations and hangings 
soon followed. Japanese statesmen, in fact, showed them- 
selves as ruthless against active reformers and revolution- 
aries at home as they had been by their own admission 
against the unfortunate Manchurians, Chinese and Koreans 
abroad. Consequently many Japanese Social Democrats 
were compelled to flee the country and take refuge in Eu- 
rope and America. Thus was seen the strange contrast 
that while Japan was granting asylum to Chinese revolu- 
tionary leaders such as Sun Yat Sen, Huang-Hsu and their 
friends, Japanese Social Democrats were imprisoned and 
executed and others were compelled to fly for their lives. 
Nevertheless, Socialism in Japan is making way steadily. 
There is already a large literature on the subject. 

The controversies which have been carried on so vigor- 
ously in Europe and America have been renewed in Japan. 
There are already two well-defined sections: the State So- 
cialists, who answer to the Fabian Society, with its bu- 
reaucratic ideals, and the revolutionary Socialists or Social 
Democrats, proceeding on the same lines as the French and 
English parties bearing the same name. By common con- 
sent persecution has failed to prevent the propaganda of 
ideas. The martyrs of Social Democracy have not sacri- 
ficed their lives or their liberties in vain. Professor Abe, 
himself a Socialist, writing of Socialism in Count Okuma's 
exhaustive work on Japan, winds up his survey in these 
words: "Socialistic ideas have been widely diffused 
throughout the Empire in the past few years, and an in- 
creasing number of scholars and statesmen now devote 



172 The Awakening of Asia 

themselves to its study, while a great many students take 
an interest in the subject. It would be a great mistake to 
judge of the influence of Socialism from the yet small 
number of professed Socialists only. The SociaHstic spirit 
is afloat everywhere." This passage appears in what is 
virtually an official publication, edited by the able states- 
man who till recently was Prime Minister. Its presence 
there goes far to prove that the Japanese, notwithstanding 
the abominable persecution referred to, and the supremacy 
for the time being of aggressive militarism, have some rea- 
son for claiming to be a wide-minded people. 

Progress is going on below all the time. Though pub- 
lic opinion is not so far developed in Japan as her cham- 
pions, native and foreign, contend it is, we cannot doubt 
that the national intelligence which has so rapidly developed 
Socialists of great capacity and high scientific idealism, v>^ill 
ere long manifest itself in an endeavour to prepare for the 
coming forms of social life, which must sooner or later 
displace the mushroom growth of capitalism. The antago- 
nism between this capitalism and the wagedom below is 
increasing. The opposition of socialised industrialism to 
aggressive imperialism must likewise gain strength. Those 
same problems which Europe and America have to face and 
solve, or else go under in the struggle of classes, must like- 
wise be handled in Japan. Capitalists will then be called 
upon to make sacrifices to enlightened patriotism like those 
made by the majority of the Daimyos and Samurai fifty 
years ago. It may be that they, and with them the nation 
at large, will rise to this high conception of national prog- 
ress, national well-being and national dignit)''. 

Already there are evidences of rapidly approaching 
changes in this direction. The present Government of 
Japan is the first definitely party administration which 
has ever held control of the country and its Empire. The 
Cabinet itself is composed of men whose social standing 



Industrial Japan 173 

in their youth and early manhood would have been enough 
to exclude them from office a very few years, not to say 
months, ago. Two of the members have actually risen 
to their present position from the ranks of what may be 
fairly described as the proletariat, having begun their career 
in the lowest class of producers and distributors. More- 
over, the great rice riots a year or so ago, which took the 
Japanese Government more than a fortnight to suppress, 
were not only violent expressions of popular exasperation 
at shortage of necessary food accompanied by very high 
prices, but were evidences of a growing determination of 
the mass of the Japanese workers to secure more direct 
influence upon the management of national affairs and the 
social order. 

Hence we can discern that democratic progress has be- 
gun and that Japan, like the Western nations, has to face, 
in the near future, important changes, accelerated in their 
development by circumstances arising out of the Great War. 
Such inevitable antagonisms cannot be suitably dealt with 
and put an end to by mere force. This Japanese statesmen 
of the new school at home, and their able diplomatists 
abroad, clearly see. They are now carefully studying how 
to avert from their own country such anarchical outbursts 
as have devastated Russia and are threatening Germany. 
This is no easy task, and the possibility of success depends 
upon prompt and capable economic and social action. The 
Japanese themselves are hopeful of a peaceful solution. 
Having learnt much from Europe, the leading power of 
Asia may, by her peaceful internal reorganisation, teach 
Europe in turn. But this can scarcely be harmonised with 
imperialist ambitions and militarist lust of conquest. In 
short, Japan, as a world-power and as the champion of 
Asia for the Asiatics, has a glorious future before her, if 
she refuses to sacrifice the greatness of her people at home 
to the illusory glory of domination abroad. 



CHAPTER XIII 

ASIATIC EMIGRATION 

It was by emigration and colonisation that the Chinese 
brought themselves directly into contact with European 
civilisation in the latter half of the nineteenth century. 
The emigrants showed remarkable capacity for adapting 
themselves to circumstances and for competing with white 
men in almost every department of industry. Great alarm 
was felt at their coming, even in comparatively small num- 
bers, to California and the Australian Colonies. This was 
a very different matter from the infamous kidnapping of 
Chinese coolies which had long gone on at the Portuguese 
port of Macao, — whence thousands of unfortunate Chinese 
were shipped off to slavery and death in the guano mines 
of the Cincha Islands — or from the more ordered inden- 
tured labour imported into Tahiti and the Sandwich Is- 
lands. Though many of the Chinamen were brought to 
the Pacific slope and Australia by the great Chinese Emi- 
gration Companies under contract, a much larger propor- 
tion landed as practically free men, and set to work on 
the gold diggings, in laundry work, as domestic servants 
and helps, as railway navvies, as skilled artificers and as 
gardeners. 

They were, as a rule, successful. Their intelligence, 
persistence, good-humour and thrift rendered them for- 
midable rivals to the whites; while their comparatively 
cheap standard of life, and the long hours which they 
were ready to work, enabled them to undersell European 
labour to an extent which, however advantageous it might 

174 



Asiatic Emigration 175 

be to the capitalists who employed them, was by no means 
satisfactory to the white artisans and labourers whom 
they deprived of their jobs. As at this time English, 
Americans and other foreigners were demanding free en- 
trance into China and the enjoyment of exceptional rights 
when landed, the objections to Chinese immigration into 
very thinly populated territories seemed quite contrary to 
fair dealing. But that made no difference. A vehement 
agitation was set on foot against the Asiatics alike in Aus- 
tralia and in America. 

The arguments generally used in favour of their exclu- 
sion avoided at first, at any rate in Australia, the question 
of their economic competition with the white labourers. 
The opposition was based on ethical and sanitary grounds. 
Objectors put the case thus: "Chinamen did not bring 
their wives with them. They were a vicious, degraded set 
who corrupted the white community. They formed a 
town of their own in the midst of the white cities and 
carried out their own laws and maintained their own cus- 
toms, regardless of the population around them. In order 
to keep a proper control over them and prevent them from 
committing Asiatic crimes a special police was needed, 
which entailed additional expense upon the rest of the 
community. They were great gamblers, who would stake 
their own lives and freedom and lose them to their com- 
patriots rather than not play at all, thus engendering a sort 
of chattel slavery. They were addicted to opium-smoking 
and spread this detestable and most harmful vice among 
the whites. Having no women of their own, they set to 
work, deliberately and improperly, to pervert and cajole 
white girls and women to act as their mistresses, or even 
to become their wives. They lived wretched, unwholesome 
lives packed close in ill-ventilated dens which became a 
source of danger and a breeding ground for loathsome dis- 
eases for the Colony in which they settled. All the money 



176 The Awakening of Asia 

they earned by their industry, and saved by their excessive 
thrift, was not used for the benefit of the people among 
whom they dwelt, but was sent off to China to their rela- 
tives in that country, or to lie in Chinese banks until their 
own return. The goods imported for their use, and nearly 
the whole of the trade which their presence engendered, 
passed solely through the hands of Chinese merchants, 
and, except for the payment of freight, did not advantage 
the white dealers in any way. Thus, during the whole of 
their existence outside the Flowery Land, Chinese immi- 
grants of every grade were in no sense Colonists, nor did 
they become genuine citizens. Even when they died in 
the country they went to, they took good care that their 
bodies should not fertilise the soil they had lived upon and 
cultivated : their corpses were conveyed back to China in 
order that their dust might mingle with the earth sanctified 
by the ashes of their ancestors of long ago." 

It was a formidable indictment, some counts of which 
were founded on legitimate grievances. But, taken as a 
whole, the Chinese were quiet, hard-working people who 
were exceedingly useful in developing sparsely-peopled ter- 
ritories, who also performed duties, especially in the direc- 
tion of small farming and the cultivation of vegetables, 
which were entirely neglected by the white settlers. The 
real objection to their presence was that already stated. 

The white workers found that these intelligent Asiatics, 
who seemed to live only to toil and accumulate savings, 
could undersell them in the labour market and might bring 
down the rate of wages below any reasonable standard of 
European subsistence. These vigorous Celestials with their 
broad hats, strange attire and curious habits of working 
and walking, threatened, in short, the well-being of their 
white competitors, or so they thought. Hence, as cargo 
after cargo of them landed in San Francisco, or Melbourne, 
and were housed in miserable tenements, where they slept 



Asiatic Emigration 177 

packed head and tail like sardines in a tin, breathing an 
atmosphere so thick and fetid that many a curious visitor 
who peeped in upon them at night soon suffered physical 
upset for his pains — as cargo after cargo of these robust 
Chinese came over, the numbers of the new arrivals were 
grossly exaggerated and a very bitter feehng was aroused 
among the populace. 

Visions of millions of these objectionable but never- 
theless educated and civilised interlopers taking charge of 
Australia, or the Pacific Slope of America, were conjured 
up before the eyes of the white Colonists, and it was pointed 
out to them, by men of ability and literary power, that mil- 
lions more would scarcely be missed from the vast store- 
house of 400,000,000 people whence they came. The Chi- 
nese problem was a burning racial question in theory, and 
a riotous mob question in practice. The Yellow Danger 
became as formidable a peril in social affairs as Yellow 
Jack in common physiology. China Town in San Fran- 
cisco, Little Bourke Street in Melbourne, were held up as 
specimens of an old and degraded civilisation, imported 
from Asia, to corrupt and embrute the high refinement of 
the mining camps and free-meal saloons where the Euro- 
pean held sway. 

I saw this Chinese immigration close at hand when it 
occasioned most alarm, both in the United States and in 
Australia. As I have personally always liked the Chinese 
whom I have met, whether belonging to the coolie or to 
the merchant and trader class, and have found them, so far 
as my experience of employing them went, a straightfor- 
ward, trustworthy and capable folk, my view on the matter 
of Chinese immigration and Chinese competition is cer- 
tainly not prejudiced against this great Asiatic people. I 
have, in fact, much admiration for them, and I have never 
ceased to wonder at the cool, matter-of-fact way in which 
they adapted themselves, without in any way giving up 



178 The Awakening of Asia 

their nationality, or changing their own dress or customs, 
to the very different civilisation into the midst of which 
they had plumped themselves down. 

I have seen them at work in Australia on gold-fields 
wholly abandoned by white diggers but which they con- 
tinued by endless toil to work at a profit. I have witnessed 
their admirable assiduity in supplying mining camps and 
even considerable towns and cities with excellent vegetables, 
that, but for their market-gardening, would have been desti- 
tute of any food of the kind. I have observed their excel- 
lent service as laundrymen, domestic servants and cooks 
when there were no whites at hand who would devote them- 
selves to these avocations ; and thus, having watched all this 
going on, I cannot shut my eyes to the truth that, in what 
are called new countries, the Chinese are exceedingly use- 
ful and worthy people. To denounce their method of life 
when we leave our own disgusting piggeries of slums un- 
remedied in London and Glasgow, New York and Chicago, 
appeared to me the height of hypocrisy. No cities in Eu- 
rope or America could turn out skilled and unskilled ar- 
tisans and workmen by the thousand, educated, capable, 
industrious and self-respecting, as the coast cities of China 
did in the 'sixties and 'seventies of the last century. Their 
activity and daring were as remarkable as their persist- 
ence. 

A barque put into Nandi Bay, in what was then a re- 
mote part of Fiji, in 1869. The few whites who were then 
settled in the neighbourhood went quickly to the shore to 
find out who the new-comers were and what was their 
object in coming. The barque was bound for the principal 
settlement, Levuka, and was out of its course. In the first 
boat to touch land was a Chinaman, whose pidgin English 
was just intelligible. I asked him what he was doing in 
the vessel, for he had no appearance of a seaman about him. 
It struck me the moment I had put the question that he 



Asiatic Emigration 179 

might just as well have inquired the same thing of me — 
for how I had got where I then was I scarcely knew. How- 
ever, his answer was that some 3,000 of his countrymen 
were "out of their time," as indentured labourers in Tahiti, 
and he had come out in this vessel to see if there was any 
opening for them in the Fiji Islands. I met "John" again 
later, in Sydney. He saw there was nothing to be done in 
the Fijis for his coolies and was then casting about for a 
passage back to Tahiti in another craft. 

A few months after this, I went up from Auckland, 
New Zealand, to the Sandwich Islands. That group was 
then full of Chinese, and I seem to remember that I got 
more than one excellent dinner cooked by a Chinaman 
at Honolulu on my way to San Francisco. There again 
the Chinese question loomed large, and Bret Harte, whom 
I called upon and got to know, had just written his famous 
ironical stanzas about the Heathen Chinee. China Town, 
afterwards so largely used in novels and sketches of Cali- 
fornian life and adventure, was then by no means so ex- 
tensive, or possessed of such remarkable underground and 
aboveground residences, as in years to come. But it was 
an extraordinary Asiatic quarter for an Occidental city 
even then — a bit of China growing up, with its theatres, 
opium-dens, restaurants and bitter factions, in the heart 
of San Francisco. It was obvious that the inhabitants had 
"come to stay" until, having made enough money to satisfy 
them, they returned to China and were replaced by others 
of their countrymen. 

Under the conditions then existing, the Chinese, I felt 
sure, would soon pervade the whole of California and pos- 
sibly spread farther inland. That was the general opinion, 
though here, as in Australia, the immigration had only just 
begun. From San Francisco across the continent by rail 
was my next journey. There were the Chinese again. The 
Central Pacific Railroad had only just been completed and 



i8o The Awakening of Asia 

linked up with the other sections of the great transcon- 
tinental line. At one of the highest stations, in the heart of 
the Rocky Mountains, a large number of Chinese railway- 
navvies were collected on the platform. Before the train 
left, the letters from China which had come in by the last 
mail steamer were being distributed tO' them— letters and 
postcards. There stood the Chinamen reading their com- 
munications from home, written in a language unknown to 
the Americans and other travellers who stood around, as 
if they had lived for years in the country. 

I have recalled these personal incidents because I feel 
confident that sooner or later, if the existing competitive, 
capitalist, wage-paying social system continues, this matter 
of Chinese immigration and Chinese competition will be- 
come again a very serious question indeed, in the United 
States of America and in the English Colonies. There are 
already some 9,000,000 of Chinese out of China; and in 
the Malay Straits Settlement and elsewhere they do very 
well under the British flag. But an emigration of 9,000,000 
must be, of course, a mere bagatelle to China. The really 
important fact is that, ere long, as white men feared nearly 
fifty years ago, further millions may insist upon trying 
their fortunes again in countries already partially peopled, 
not by Malays or other Asiatics, but by men of Europeaft 
race. 

Now, I have satisfied myself that, should this be so, 
the white workers cannot hold their own permanently 
against Chinese competition in the labour market. The 
lower standard of life, the greater persistence, the superior 
education of the Chinese will beat them, and will continue 
to beat them — always to the advantage of the capitalists. 
That was the reason why, in 1879, the further importation 
of Chinamen into the United States, and shortly after into 
Australia, was forbidden by law, and heavy penalties were 



Asiatic Emigration i8i 

enacted against its infringement. The exclusion remains 
legally in force to-day. 

It was a very strong measure. Moreover, it was a 
measure which was directed not only against the Chinese 
but, so far as Australia was concerned, against other 
Asiatics. Even Indians, who form a portion of the recog- 
nised population of the British Empire, were prevented 
from landing on the great Southern Continent, unless they 
paid a fine, or entrance money, to the amount of one hun- 
dred pounds sterling. And this Act was so stringent and 
so universally applicable that, several years ago, a special 
law had to be passed through the Australian Assemblies 
enabling the famous cricketer, Ranjitsinghi, now the Jam 
of Ramnuggar, to land and play for England against Aus- 
tralia, in the test cricket matches, without reducing his 
funds to that extent in favour of his hospitable entertainers. 

Here, therefore, we had a direct and bitter economic 
and social antagonism between European settlers and 
Asiatics as represented chiefly by the Chinese, in the 
sparsely-peopled continents of North America and Aus- 
tralia, which resulted in the declaration of a virtual war 
of exclusion against the older race. In South America, 
parts of the West Indies, the Dutch Colonies and elsewhere, 
the feeling was not so strong and the action was not so 
decisive. 

But now the whole question has been raised afresh by 
emigrants from the rising Power of the Far East, and 
the antagonism has assumed a phase which may easily give 
rise to very great difficulties in the near future, though for 
the time being a truce — it is no more than a truce — has 
been arranged. In this new development the Japanese 
have taken the place of the Chinese. 

The Chinese had, perforce, submitted, without more 
than a mild protest, to the laws against the admission of 
their countrymen into America and Australia. They were 



1 82 The Awakening of Asia 

a great people whose civilisation, based upon much of what 
we call modern scientific knowledge, was in full growth 
before even Egypt had attained a dominant position and 
probably many hundreds of years before the Greeks had 
enlightened the Mediterranean. But they were in no posi- 
tion to fight. So they allowed Europeans to settle in their 
own quarters in the great Chinese seaports, to hold for 
themselves an important portion of Peking ; while they gave 
way entirely upon the right of the Chinese to earn their 
living in territory occupied by the white race. 

But times were changing in the East, and Japanese 
emigration came about under very different circumstances. 
The exclusion law of 1879 did not directly apply to them. 
So they rapidly took the place of the Chinese in the Sand- 
wich Islands, a few years later, and began to occupy the 
same position in California. By this time, however, Japan, 
by her adoption of European methods of warfare and her 
marvellous success in her campaigns, first against China 
and then against Russia, had secured her place as a civilised 
power, capable of treating on equal terms with the most 
important European nations. Japan had been the Ally of 
England since 1902, had entered upon the closest possible 
relations with Russia, and was generally regarded as the 
rising force in Far Eastern politics. 

When, therefore, her countrymen were brutally attacked 
in California, when their shops and places of business were 
destroyed and their lives placed in jeopardy — when, in 
short, the old methods used against the Chinese to intimi- 
date them and to compel the United States Government to 
exclude them were put in force against the Japanese — a 
very different situation arose. The Japanese had a perfect 
right to settle in California and elsewhere in America. 
Their presence was protected by Treaty, and the various 
objections formulated against the Chinese did not apply 
to these clean, quiet, capable Asiatics. They had, there- 



Asiatic Emigration 183 

fore, every ground to complain of the treatment of their 
emigrants and, what was much more important, they had 
the means of defending them, if necessary, by force. More- 
over, they claimed, as civilised, educated men and women, 
that their children should have the same rights in the schools 
as the children of American citizens. 

Here the race prejudice, which plays a very much 
greater part in social and political America than is gen- 
erally known in Europe, comes in very strongly indeed. 
This was the second great motive of the hostility to the 
Chinese : the economic competition in the wages market 
being the first. Both reasons applied to the Japanese and 
quite as forcibly. The Japanese were formidable in the 
labour market, were even in some respects perhaps more 
objectionable than the Chinese. They were equally mem- 
bers of an alien race : in fact, a Chinaman and a Japanese, 
both now without pigtails, when dressed in European garb, 
can scarcely be distinguished by white men's eyes from 
one another. The Japanese, however, did bring their 
women with them, and to all appearance intended to take 
root in the country, which the Chinese, being in the main 
birds of passage, were not likely to do. 

The school question for Japanese children brought the 
whole matter to a crisis. It was a crucial point. It was 
one upon which the Japanese Government could and can 
scarcely give way permanently, without admitting the in- 
feriority of their people to Americans — and this they are 
not at all disposed to concede. Consequently, the feeling 
between the two countries became increasingly bitter. The 
Japanese were quite within their rights, alike in protesting 
against the ill-treatment of their countrymen, against the 
law preventing the ownership of land by Japanese, against 
the exclusion of Japanese children from the American free 
schools, and against the refusal of the United States to 
receive any more Japanese immigrants. But the Govern- 



184 The Awakening of Asia 

ment o£ Washington, pressed by the agitation of the whole 
of the States of the Pacific Slope, was unable to agree 
to the Japanese demands, however right they may have 
felt them to be. 

It was at this time that I received a letter from my 
friend Dr. Sen Katayama, the leader of the Socialist Party 
in Japan. Katayama had been forced to leave his country 
and to settle in California, owing to the relentless persecu- 
tion, followed by numerous condemnations to death and 
long imprisonment, set on foot against Socialists in Japan 
by the Japanese authorities, Katayama is well known to 
the SociaHsts of Europe. He was present at the great In- 
ternational Socialist Congress of Amsterdam, which was 
held in the middle of the Russo-Japanese War. One of 
the most dramatic incidents of that Congress, which did not 
lack for stirring episodes, was when Katayama, as delegate 
and leader of the Japanese Social Democrats, and Plech- 
anoff, holding the same position in respect to the Russian 
Social Democrats, came forward on the platform and shook 
hands amid vehement applause. The whole of the hundreds 
of delegates present rose in their places and cheered. It 
was a striking scene. Socialists at that time still believed 
in the international fraternity of the workers — an illusion 
which, in 19 14, was so completely destroyed for the time 
being by the action of the German Social Democrats in 
heartily supporting the ruthless militarist aggression of 
their Junker caste. 

Here is Kata^ama's letter: 

"3903 Sacramento St., 

San Francisco, Cal., U.S.A. 

"Lr.*H.Hyndman. Dec. 12,1914. 

"Dear Sir, — It is very, very sad thing that your prediction 
became now fulfilled in Europe. But to you, dear Dr., an 

*I regret to say I am not a Doctor of any branch of learning or 
scienae. — H. M. H. 



Asiatic Emigration 185 

honour of your farsighted judgment must be bestowed by the 
world! Those who ridiculed or buffeted at your wise predic- 
tion are fighting on both sides and are given their principles 
of international socialism up to the misguided patriotism, and 
apparently reasonable pretext for national defence! 

"I left now some three months ago Japan for this country 
and now I am working among the Japanese in the Pacific 
coasts. Japan does as you know still persecute socialists and 
does not permit them to agitate for the cause of socialism, nay 
more the Japanese authorities do not allow us to work for the 
laboring class interest even in the line of pure and simple 
trades unionism. I am really driven out of my country be- 
cause of socialism, financially it was impossible for me to 
get living in Japan, even then if I could devote my life for 
the interest of the working classes I would suffered every pri- 
vation and poverty but I could do nothing, I was too well 
known to the authorities to work in disguise, I was utterly 
hopeless for the rest of my life in Japan, so I decided to leave 
my country, first I intended to be at Vienna Sociahst Congress 
but it was impossible as you know it, so I could come here for 
my own and my family's sake. 

"Now dear Doctor there are some one hundred and sixty 
thousand Japanese in the U.S.A. They are mostly workers 
unskilled or farm laborers. With exception of Hawaii the 
Japanese are all living amidst of anti-Jap. movement which 
has been ever growing and ever far reaching in the U.S.A. 
The anti- Japanese movement has been headed by influential 
men of two political parties such as ex-Pres. Roosevelt, Hearst 
and Johnson, together with Gompers and Berger. The mass of 
the Americans are ignorant of the real situation. They judge 
the matter by the newspapers and world's map, a tiny little 
map compared with the America — and they think it is nonsense 
to think of America going to war with Japan. This ignoring 
the situation by the mass of American workers is very danger- 
ous and Hable to cause the war between Japan and the U.S.A. 
As you know Japanese workers are not organised and easily 
misled by the Jingo party. But the problem is still more 
pressing for nearly two hundred thousand Japanese are to-day 



1 86 The Awakening of Asia 

in American soil, and they are almost all persecuted by the 
white people simply because they are of yellow color skin. 
Since the European war began the Japanese in America be- 
came stricken with fear and anxiety for they read from day to 
day about persecuting or shooting down the peaceful and non- 
fighting population by both sides, especially by Germans. It 
is only nationality that cause even such a hatred and enmity 
resulting in brutal persecution and butchering innocent women 
and children there. The Japanese in America fear and dread, 
I think not unreasonably, of the possible war between Japan 
and America and their consequent lot that might be far more 
horrible than those of Germans in French soil or English in 
Germany at the present time, for they are entirely different 
race from the people in this country. 

"Now it is not a question which side shall win in the coming 
conflict, if such a conflict came to be true, no. Whichever side 
may get the final victory in the supposed conflict, that would 
be not much consequence actually to the laboring classes of 
both countries ; they shall suffer equally in the war just as they 
are suffering in Europe to-day. 

"It is too complicated to deal with the relation between two 
countries in question, but I am trying to find out some ways 
to avert the future conflict of twO' nations and moreover, I am 
endeavouring to find out what shall be the best attitude that 
the Japanese in America should assume under such a con- 
dition. You might think it best way for both if the Japanese 
shall leave the U.S.A. and get their home. Now no Jap. im- 
migrant comes nowadays from Japan under the gentlemen's 
agreement, and it is not easy matter for all the Japanese of 
two hundred thousands shall leave their abodes in America. 
Many of them are now ten, twenty and even thirty years in 
this country. 

"Dear Dr. Will you kindly tell me what shall I advice my 
own countrymen workers here that will be the best on the 
situation? Anti-Japanese movement now in the U.S.A. is not 
against those Japanese who might come here after. It is anti- 
Japanese who are already here, yes, they are here, coming 
under then the most favorable circumstances, many of them 



Asiatic Emigration 187 

come here and to Hawaii because they were called for by the 
true Americans namely the sugar planters and railroad kings ! 
And they are now persecuted socially and financially and losing 
one after another the privileges that they have enjoyed equally 
in the past with Americans or those other nationahties ! 

"I am intending to publish a little paper for the interest 
of the Japanese in America so I wish you write me an advice 
to the Japanese in America as to their future what is the best. 

"I remain yours 

"SEN. KATAYAMA." 

I do not think there is any doubt whatever that when 
he wrote, his alarm was genuine and entirely warranted. 
The Japanese had been abominably treated by the Ameri- 
cans of California and the Pacific Slope generally. The 
Colonists of British Columbia had joined in the outcry, 
notwithstanding the succession of Treaties 1902, 1905, 
and 191 1, between the mother country and Japan. There 
was, therefore, quite a possibility that in the event of 
war between the United States and the Island Empire 
something of the kind anticipated by Katayama might have 
taken place. On the other hand, the Japanese, though scat- 
tered, vv^ere not defenceless, and a great number of them 
were trained soldiers. Happily, the Japanese Government, 
with that cool, far-seeing policy which so far has always 
distinguished its great Council of Foreign Affairs, de- 
cided not to push matters to an extremity. They even 
withdrew their just claims and undertook to restrict Jap- 
anese emigration to the United States as far as possible. 
But they did not do so because they were unable to press 
their rights by force of arms, but because, presumably, they 
did not feel that this was the time, nor perhaps the special 
question, on which they wished to assert themselves to 
that extent. 

It is well, however, for the sake of the United States 
and the British Colonies, that the full truth about the 



1 88 The Awakening of Asia 

Japanese as Colonists should be thoroughly understood. 
The matter should be examined and considered wholly with- 
out prejudice. Whatever may be the drawbacks, from the 
point of view of competition on a lower standard of life, 
these obstacles are speedily overcome. To begin with. Miss 
Brown's statements about them, that "The Japanese are 
peaceable, law-abiding, tirelessly industrious, home-seeking, 
moral, temperate, grateful and generous. They require no 
policing, there are no disturbances; no woman has ever 
been molested," are confirmed by the special Commission 
appointed by the United States Government. But they are 
also well educated, quick to learn English, and ambitious. 
This latter quality In particular the Americans dislike. The 
Japanese think themselves quite as good as the Calif ornlans, 
and they do not trouble to disguise their opinion. 

Professor Millis, Professor of Political Economy in 
the University of Kansas, after twelve years of investiga- 
tion, speaks of them in the very highest terms in every 
respect. They compare, he says, favourably "in the mat- 
ter of schooling and literacy with immigrants from Eu- 
rope and are vastly superior to Chinese and Mexicans." 
Their cleanliness is remarkable: drunkenness and opium- 
smoking are almost unknown. He also entirely agrees 
with the good opinion expressed of them in other respects. 
In everything except colour, creed and race they are most 
desirable members of the community. Moreover, they are 
extremely anxious to get out of the wage-earning class, 
where their competition, undoubtedly, is difficult for white 
labourers to meet. Most of the immigrants into California 
are agriculturists. Directly they are able to do so they 
take up land. Such admirable cultivators are they that 
they can pay their way and thrive upon land under such 
heavy rents as were never before known. Where possible 
they purchase land and settle down to a comfortable, and 
in every manner respectable, family life. The children, 



Asiatic Emigration 189 

when they go to the common schools, differ little from the 
rest of the scholars, except that they are more adaptable 
and much more courteous than the American children. 

In fact, from every point of view the Japanese in the 
West of America are reputed to be an admirable people. 
Yet laws have been passed not only preventing them from 
acquiring land by purchase but they are not even allowed 
to lease land for more than three years. There can be 
no dispute about the truth of the contention that they 
have been and are badly treated by the American Gov- 
ernment simply and solely because they are Japanese and 
because what they might do in the way of competition is 
greatly feared. They inherit the prejudice against the 
Chinese of thirty-five and forty years ago, a prejudice which 
was then possibly justifiable. But the Japanese, unlike 
the Chinese, settle in the country permanently, if they are 
allowed to do so ; they till the land they take up admirably ; 
their wives work with them on their holdings, and their 
children grow up to be as industrious, as capable, as self- 
respecting and even better educated than themselves. They 
are beginning to demand full rights of nationalisation as 
American citizens. There seems no reason whatever why 
these rights should not be conceded. There is nothing but 
race and religious antagonism against it, provided always 
that, by a reasonable and friendly arrangement with the 
Japanese themselves, the numbers of the immigrants be 
limited within given periods. This, it appears, the Japanese 
Government is willing to concede. 

But the same position has arisen with regard to Brit- 
ish Columbia and Australia, It cannot be dealt with, in 
my opinion, by permanent exclusion, if Japan insists upon 
her rights as a civihsed power. 

Those who imagine, therefore, that the whole question 
of Asiatic emigration to North America and Australia 
has been more than temporarily settled are, in my judg- 



190 The Awakening of Asia 

ment, deceiving themselves altogether. It is possible, of 
course, that the internal development of Japan, and behind 
her of China, may afford a full outlet for the ill-paid labour 
of the industrious millions in Japan and the tens of mil- 
lions of China. But this does not seem in the least Hkely 
for many a long year to come. When, consequently, the 
vast populations of Eastern Asia move in earnest towards 
a peaceful colonisation of the European settlements bor- 
dering on the Pacific Ocean, and when they do this with 
the support and under the leadership of the Governments 
of Japan and China, it is difficult to see how their demand 
for free access to such sparsely-peopled territories as South- 
ern California, British Columbia and Western Australia 
can be effectively resisted. 

Nor, when they have once landed, is it easy to under- 
stand how they are to be prevented from competing vigor- 
ously with white labour. It is as certain as anything can 
be that Socialism, or the general organisation of industry 
upon the basis of co-operation instead of competition, will 
not make head fast enough to handle this economic and 
social problem before it is forced upon the world on a 
vast scale. The tendency even of European nations to 
resort to Chinese labour at a pinch has been shown during 
the war by the French, as well as the British, and this 
tendency may increase in time to come. Meanwhile, I 
regard the fact beyond dispute that, under capitalism, com- 
petitive wagedom and production for profit, the European 
and American workers cannot hold their own against the 
Mongolian toilers. 

The subject of emigration and immigration was 
brought up more than once at International Socialist Con- 
gresses, and special Commissions, on which I served my- 
self, were appointed to deal with the question. But the 
ignorance of the matter displayed by the majority of the 
members of the Commissions was so great, and their dis- 



Asiatic Emigration 191 

inclination to look facts in the face, which in any way con- 
flicted with their universal humanitarian theories was 
so strong, that the Reports presented were practically value- 
less. No attempt was really made to treat the serious com- 
plications involved. European workers in short are not, 
as yet, competent to handle the whole of this immigration 
problem, and American and Australasian workers are, for 
the most part, bitterly prejudiced. 

Emigration from India, being directly controlled by 
the Indian Government, does not present the same features, 
or create the same difficulties, that have arisen and will 
almost inevitably arise again in connection with the out- 
flow from China and Japan. But the economic antagonism 
to the Aryan Hindoos is as strong on the part of the whites 
as their objection to the Mongol Asiatics. This has been 
manifested of late years by the legislation against them in 
Australia, already mentioned, and more recently in South 
Africa and British Columbia. They are hated not only as 
workers who compete with white labourers, but as small 
traders who outbid and undersell European traffickers? 
Their claim to British citizenship has not protected them 
from most unjust and shameful treatment by their fellow- 
subjects of the British Empire. This cannot go on safely. 
As Asia begins to assert herself and to take her rightful 
place in the world, India, like other portions of that great 
continent, will demand that her people should cease to be 
treated as inferior beings, when brought into contact with 
those whose interests they have helped to defend on the 
battlefields of Europe. 

There can be little doubt that in the near future this 
whole matter of race competition in the industrial sphere, 
outside Asia itself, will be forced upon the consideration 
of the British Empire and the United States in particular. 
The sooner, therefore, the subject is discussed without 
prejudice and some reasonable decision reached, the better. 



192 The Awakening of Asia 

Japan and China, together or separately, are very different 
Powers from what .they were in 1879, or even, relatively 
speaking, in 191 1. 

It is of the utmost importance also that England and 
America and the white races generally should form a seri- 
ous judgment upon the course they intend to pursue to- 
wards China and the Chinese. England and America, 
especially, are allowing matters to drift after a fashion 
that can scarcely fail to be dangerous. While both are 
crying aloud for the "open door" and proclaiming the 
necessity for Chinese independence, neither the British 
Empire nor the United States is taking any definite steps 
to secure either the one or the other. At the same time, the 
British Empire, by the action of its Colonies in Australia 
and British Columbia, and the United States by its sur- 
render to the agitation in California, are putting them- 
selves completely in the wrong by their policy of excluding 
the civilised Mongolians from their respective countries. 
Especially is this policy untenable when both powers are 
demanding the fullest rights of entry and settlement in 
China itself against the wishes of the overwhelming ma- 
jority of the Chinese people. In my opinion it will be 
impossible in the near future to keep the yellow races 
permanently out of British and American territory, should 
they continue to wish to immigrate and settle there. But 
it is most important that, if this is really the case, the two 
nations most directly concerned in the attempted solution 
of this difficult problem of Asiatic emigration and immi- 
gration should hold close conference on the question. To 
drift is to move towards war, as we have seen recently 
in European affairs. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE BRITISH IN INDIA 

The invasion of India from the West, in modern times, be- 
gan in earnest by way of trade and commerce. There was 
no preconceived intention of conquering that vast territory 
by any of the Europeans who first landed and made settle- 
ments on its shores, except perhaps for a short time by the 
Portuguese. Nor, as already said in passing, has there ever 
been a successful propaganda of Christianity in Hindustan, 
such as menaced the well-being of China and Japan. At 
the beginning of the rivalry of the two principal nations of 
Europe for influence over the Indian Courts and Kingdoms, 
the French were the statesmen and administrators, the Eng- 
lish were the merchants and traders. Such men as Dupleix 
and Bussy took a wider view of Indian affairs, and better 
understood what would be to the advantage of the Indians 
themselves, than the English of the same period. Indians, 
also, were first trained to war on European principles and 
formed into armies of Sepoys by men of the Perron, de 
Boigne and Raymond type.* Yet England succeeded in es- 
tablishing her rule where France failed; because her ad- 
venturers, as they gained power, were supported from home, 
which the French were not; because the English fleets 
eventually obtained control of the Eastern as well as the 
Western seas; and because, at the critical moment, the 
present masters of Hindustan made better use of the trained 
Indian levies and played upon the differences between the 

* Colonel Hyndman disarmed Raymond's force at the Nizam's Court 
in 1802. 

193 



194 The Awakening of Asia 

Indian Courts with greater astuteness than their opponents. 

Nevertheless, the conquest of India, mainly by Indian 
troops, led by Englishmen, was achieved, as it were, by ac- 
cident. There was no organised effort whatever. The con- 
quistadores of South America and Mexico were born again 
in a new shape, and equally destitute of scruple, throughout 
the settlements granted as trading centres by the Rajahs and 
Nawabs of India. The East India Company was not in the 
least desirous of annexing and governing large and populous 
districts. On the contrary, the Directors were never weary 
of impressing upon their representatives in India the per- 
manent necessity for keeping their direct possessions within 
the narrowest possible limits. Above all, they should avoid 
war with their neighbours. Hostilities of any kind were 
wholly outside the scope of money-getting commercial en- 
terprise and injurious to business. 

The sole aim and object of these advocates of profitable 
peace and lucrative persuasion was to secure the means for 
distributing enormous dividends on the shares of their 
company. Aggression must be avoided, but adequate profits 
and commercial returns must be made. But the agents on 
the spot took the most effective means at their disposal to 
satisfy the pecuniary demands of their chiefs in London, and 
paid little attention to their prohibition of remunerative 
rapine. Thus was seen the marvellous spectacle of clerks 
and supercargoes developing into great generals and ad- 
ministrators of the first rank and winning an Empire against 
fearful odds. This unexampled fashion of conducting the 
business of a mere trading company, taking possession of 
a civilised Empire as a detail of business, and waging great 
wars in order to pay huge dividends to shareholders thou- 
sands of miles away, is quite exceptional on such a scale in 
all human history. Nothing like it had ever before been 
seen in the East: nothing like it will probably ever occur 
again. 



The British in India 195 

From the first began that steady withdrawal of wealth 
from India to England which, in one form or another, has 
gone on ever since. Throughout the latter part of the 
eighteenth century, the wealthy English Nabob, denounced 
by Pitt, who had returned to his own country, after shaking 
the pagoda-tree to some purpose in his own interest, was the 
familiar type of the rich man of yesterday. There are the 
records of the East India Company to bear witness to the 
conduct of the fortune-hunters of that halcyon period of 
plunder. India was the El Dorado of the unscrupulous and 
cruel commercial adventurer. The legitimate proceedings 
of the great company, chartered by Queen Elizabeth and 
successfully carried on up to our own time, were bad enough. 
There is no doubt about that. It was no rose-water man- 
agement which paid such stupendous dividends and drove 
the stock of the lucky shareholders to such an enormous pre- 
mium. But the illegitimate business of the East was in- 
finitely worse in every respect. Even the lowest commercial 
morality cannot justify the robbery and rascality which 
pervaded many departments of English administration in 
India from the time of Clive's rise to power until the first 
Governor-Generalship of Lord Cornwallis. The praises of 
many of the successful freebooters have been chanted for 
160 years with national pride and exultation: the effect of 
their depredations upon the luckless Indians who suffered 
from their extortions, though denounced at the time by 
Englishmen of the highest character and reputation, has 
since been overlooked and is now almost forgotten. 

It is unnecessary in any case to enlarge upon the crimes 
of the men who plundered in this way a great and ancient 
civilisation. Whether Warren Hastings could or could not 
have avoided the transactions stigmatised by Burke, but 
disregarded by the Indians themselves in consideration of 
his other qualities; whether Clive and smaller men were 
entitled to be "amazed at their own moderation" in the loot 



196 The Awakening of Asia 

which they appropriated, are matters of comparatively small 
importance. The guilt or innocence of individuals counts 
for little in such a system of wholesale robbery as afflicted 
the provinces under immediate English control, and espe- 
cially Bengal and Oude, in the generation between 1757, 
the date of the battle of Plassey, and 1786, when attempts 
at reform began. 

What the total amount of wealth may have been which 
was abstracted from India and transported to England, 
without any valuable return, at the end of the eighteenth 
century will probably never be known. It must have been 
quite enormous, transcending indeed the drain from America 
to Europe which followed upon the discoveries of Columbus 
and his successors. The wealth thus abstracted from India 
and used in the form of productive capital in Enghsh indus- 
tries, especially the coal, iron and cotton industries, enabled 
Great Britain to obtain the lead in manufacture and com- 
merce which gave her the control of markets in the century 
which followed. And the Indians themselves, who pro- 
vided the means for the attainment of this commercial su- 
premacy, suffered a second time, and even more horribly 
than they did from direct expropriation, by the economic 
consequences of their original losses. 

In the seventeenth and during a great part of the 
eighteenth century the importation of Indian calicoes into 
England was prohibited, on the ground that their competi- 
tion would have crushed the rising home industry in similar 
goods. At the end of the eighteenth century, however, 
owing to the accumulation of riches, chiefly from Hin- 
dustan, England had become possessed of a virtual monopoly 
of new machinery, run by steam power, which enabled her 
to undersell the whole world in textile goods of every de- 
scription. English handloom weavers and spinners suf- 
fered seriously from the competition of the machine-made 
products at their own door; but their miseries were child's- 



The British in India 197 

play in comparison with the horrors inflicted upon the 
weavers of India at the same time. No protective tariff 
was allowed to safeguard them. Unchecked competition, 
free trade in English goods in English territory, was a 
commercial religion. 

As a consequence, these unlucky producers of Indian 
fabrics saw their means of livelihood swept away from them, 
by a process which they could neither understand nor with- 
stand. Tens upon tens of thousands of them perished of 
starvation; for there was no place for them in the Indian 
society of that day, apart from the one which they occu- 
pied. The foreign government made not the slightest at- 
tempt to regulate this fatal free-trade competition, and the 
effects of the English connection in this respect have been 
wholly harmful to the peoples of India, The fatal results 
of economic causes are carefully disregarded. Successful 
wars and continental annexations quite eclipse in interest 
the sad fate of the miserable Indian weavers who perished 
silently on the field of commercial war. 

Later on, it was generally recognised, by those who 
probed into the matter, that — to use the statement of an 
exceedingly able and vehement champion of British rule 
— "The earlier members of the Indian Service, civil and 
military, must be pronounced to be the most corrupt body of 
officials that ever brought disgrace upon a civilised govern- 
ment." Effective steps were taken to check this objection- 
able form of the exploitation of India by England and to 
regularise the methods by which the dominant power in 
Hindustan remunerated itself from Indian resources for the 
services rendered to the subjugated territories. 

The improved system of administration was set on 
foot in 1789 and, after having incidentally conquered the 
Mahrattas- — the Native States which rose to great promi- 
nence on the decay of the Mongol authority — the Governor- 
General, Lord Cornwallis, finally established English admin- 



198 The Awakening of Asia 

istration in India in much the same shape that it exists in to- 
day. Honesty was fostered, if not assured, by payments 
to the Europeans employed of such high salaries that the 
temptation to accept bribes, or to indulge in illegal appro- 
priation, became less and less inducive, in proportion to the 
risk of removal and punishment Whether the form of gov- 
ernment thus created was suited to the character of the 
people, whether it was not too expensive for the well- 
being of the inhabitants, whether foreigners were capable 
of sufficiently sympathising with and understanding the 
social system into which they had burglariously forced an 
entry, or whether the European ideas, laws and economiic 
conceptions imposed upon the population were not likely to 
prove injurious — these were points which the new Govern- 
ment never stopped to consider. 

For 132 years, from 1786 to 1919, the official class of 
foreign administrators have done their utmost, alike in 
India and in England, in Parliament, on the platform and 
in the Press, to convince the world that British rule has con- 
ferred immense benefit on its subjects, and that the in- 
habitants of Hindustan are quite incapable of governing 
themselves. This has never been the view of the mass 
of Indians themselves, ignorant, peaceful and submissive 
as the great majority of the cultivators may be, who con- 
stitute more than four-fifths of the entire population. And 
there are the great "protected" Indian States, with nearly 
70,000,000 of people, to prove still that Indian administra- 
tion of India is by no means the hopeless business that 
Englishmen as a rule believe it to be. 

During the whole of the period referred to above (1757- 
1857) conquest by force of arms and annexation by that 
means, or by chicane, pressed steadily forward. Some of 
the military operations, always carried on in the main by 
Indian troops, exhibited great skill and courage on the 
part of the European leaders; though such a disaster as 



The British in India 199 

that of Ferozeshah showed that Indian soldiers under Indian 
generals had not degenerated from the earlier days. But 
the most remarkable fact, brought out by those of the Eng- 
lish administrators who were in closest touch with their sub- 
jects, and had taken the closest pains to study and compre- 
hend their aspirations, was that the worst rule of Indians 
by their own people was preferred to the best management 
by foreigners. 

For example, the famous Sir William Sleeman, of the 
old East India Company, was a man so thoroughly versed 
in Indian languages and customs, and so completely at home 
in Indian dress and manners, that he succeeded in doing that 
which even the great Akbar, at the height of his power, 
was unable to achieve. He was able, that is to say, to put 
down that extraordinary semi-religious sect of stranglers, 
the Thugs, whose members had been the horror of all Indian 
travellers for hundreds of years. The capacity for dis- 
guise, the astounding coolness and courage displayed by 
Sleeman in the course of this triumph of detective enter- 
prise and repression of crime have never been excelled, if 
ever equalled. It was a truly marvellous feat, possible only 
to a man who had the most thorough knowledge of Indian 
dialects and provincial peculiarities, with a keen imagination 
as well, which gave him the power of reading into the 
minds of those with whom he was brought into contact, 
under circumstances that might have cost him his life at 
any moment. But, in addition to this astounding per- 
formance, Sleeman was one of the ablest and best of the 
East India Company's Civil Servants and Administrators. 
Naturally, too, he was loyal to his own countrymen. 

Yet what does he tell us of a specific instance with which 
he was familiarly acquainted? Native rule in the great 
province of Oude was in every way abominable. It is 
doubtful whether in time of peace any worse tyranny was 
ever seen in any part of Hindustan. Robbery, torture, the 



200 The Awakening of Asia 

most fiendish barbarities of every kind, were inflicted daily 
upon the wretched inhabitants. If ever interposition by a 
neighbouring State, under peaceful and law-abiding foreign 
control, could appear not only justifiable but inevitable, 
this was such a case. Interposition and annexation, there- 
fore, actually took place. What followed ? Though all this 
anarchy and misgovernment was suppressed, and life and 
property were made secure, under English law and justice, 
the people were bitterly opposed to the change, which seemed 
to foreign eyes to be so much for the better. Amid all 
these previous horrors, so shocking to Europeans of the 
nineteenth century, Indian habits, Indian customs and In- 
dian laws were in the main upheld. The land-tax was 
roughly and not unreasonably assessed and levied, the ra- 
pacity of native money-lenders was checked, the existing 
legal methods were simple and generally understood. 

To give Sir William Sleeman's own words : "There 
were neither accumulating arrears of land revenue nor 
ruinous back debts to weigh down the proprietors; there 
were no unsatisfied decrees of Court to drive debtors 
to hopeless despair; they came back from their court 
of bankruptcy, the jungle forest, free from encumbrance; 
the bread-tax was fixed with some regard to the coming 
harvest; arrears were remitted when the impossibility of 
payment within the year was clearly demonstrated. . . . There 
could be no black despair in those days of changeful mis- 
rule." Never was there a more crushing exposure of the 
idea that honesty of administration and peace within the 
borders of a subject country really justifies foreign domina- 
tion. "The people," so this master of Indian affairs openly 
declared, "the people generally, or at least the greater part 
of them, would prefer to reside in Oude . . . than in our own 
districts, under the evils they are exposed to from the 
uncertainty of our laws, the multiplicity and formality of 
our courts, the pride and negligence of those who preside 



The British in India 201 

over them, and the corruption and insolence of those who 
must be employed to prosecute or defend a cause in them 
and to enforce the fulfilment of a decree when passed. . . . 
I am persuaded that if it were put to the vote among the 
people of Oude, ninety-nine in a hundred would rather re- 
main as they are, without any feeling of security in life or 
property, than have our system introduced in its present 
complicated state." 

This was in 1856, the year before the great Mutiny. 
Two generations have passed since then, and the system 
is more complicated than ever. No fewer then twenty-five 
thousand new laws were put on the statute-book in the 
first ten years of this twentieth century alone ! 

Annexation, therefore, to the British Empire in India 
has never been welcomed by the people annexed. Yet the 
direct government of Englishmen, who did not interfere 
with Indian habits but did their best to ensure honest and 
prompt judgment in case of difference, and used their au- 
thority to restrict economic hardship and to secure fair play, 
has often been immensely popular. Such men are never 
forgotten by the inhabitants of their provinces over which 
they have once exercised their benign sway. Whole dis- 
tricts would turn out to welcome them; men, women and 
children would cover them with flowers and chant their 
praises, when they returned after the lapse of many years. 
This sort of one-man rule called, of course, for thorough 
knowledge of the country and the language, as well as for 
long and continuous residence among the people themselves. 
But such instances of individual success before narrow- 
minded bureaucracy gained control were not rare under the 
"Kumpani Bahadur." The servants of the Government 
who were given appointments went to India very young, 
found themselves at the early age of seventeen or eighteen 
thrown among a strange population, and often entrusted 
with powers which rendered it imperative that they should 



202 The Awakening of Asia 

become thoroughly acquainted with those over whom they 
were placed. It is creditable to our race that, after the 
early days of rapine and rascality, so many were success- 
ful under such trying circumstances. 

Moreover, the East India Company itself, though it 
kept up a European and a powerful Indian Army, was not 
lavish in its expenditure; nor, in spite of all drawbacks, and 
the general objection to the new methods gradually gain- 
ing ground, was it regarded with hatred by its subjects. 
The drain of produce without return from India to Eng- 
land was trifling in the Company days compared with what 
it afterwards became. Some of the most capable of those 
who rose to high appointments remembered what India had 
been and might be again. A few saw that European domi- 
nation could only be temporary, and, so far as was pos- 
sible, endeavoured to prepare their countrymen for the 
withdrawal which they knew, sooner or later, was inevitable. 
But the general opinion, both in India and in England, was 
that the Indians, split up into many races and peoples, with 
at least four antagonistic religions, professed by millions 
of people, and with the caste system which shut out whole 
sections of the inhabitants from close contact with one 
another, were quite incapable of common action against the 
foreigners, however much they might dislike their rule. 
The great past of Hindustan was already being forgotten 
in any estimate of the future of the Empire. Already it 
was taken for granted that Europeanisation was the one 
thing needful to make of India a greater Empire than ever, 
and thus to increase the power and wealth of England. 

Yet, many hundreds of years before, the nations of 
India had been a collection of wealthy and highly civilised 
peoples, possessed of a great language, with an elaborate 
code of laws and social regulations, with exquisite artistic 
taste in architecture and decoration, having beautiful manu- 
factures of all kinds, and endowed with religious ideas and 



The British in India 203 

philosophic and scientific conceptions which have greatly 
influenced the development of the most progressive races of 
the West. One of the noblest individual moralists who ever 
lived, Sakya Houni, was a Hindu; the Code of Menu, of 
the ninth century, before the Christian Era, is still as essen- 
tial a study for the jurist as the Laws of the Twelve Tables 
or the Institutes of Justinian; Akbar the Mohammedan 
was the greatest monarch who ever ruled the East; while, 
even in later times, nations over whom the English held 
supremacy have proved that there are among them no un- 
worthy descendants of the authors of the Vedas of the 
Mahabarata and Ramayana, of the architecture of the Taj 
Mahal and Beejapore, of Toder Mull and Nana Furnava 
of Baber, Hyder Ali and Runjeet Singh, Nevertheless, 
nine-tenths of what has been written about India in Eng- 
lish is so expressed that we are led to believe that stable 
civilised government only began with the European Raj, 
and that nothing short of wholesale Europeanisation can 
save Hindustan from permanent anarchy. 

It is now recognised that the revolt which goes by the 
name of the Indian Mutiny was in reality a national rising 
against the growing extension of European domination. 
The native troops of the East India Company were roused 
against their officers by misrepresentations calculated to out- 
rage the dearest feelings, or prejudices, of soldiers of all 
creeds and castes. But the scope of the upheaval went far 
beyond the army itself. A considerable part of India was 
directly hostile to English rule, so far as the more intelli- 
gent and well-to-do classes were concerned. The plans of 
the leaders were well laid; the discontent upon which they 
could reckon was widespread; the recent refusal of the 
ancient right of adoption, by the Government, and seizure 
of the territories of Indian Chieftains on that ground had 
alarmed all the Princes ; the date of the attack had been well 
chosen, being a hundred years after the manifest superiority 



204 The Awakening of Asia 

of the white man in arms had been first admitted; and the 
secret of the conspiracy was, on the whole, well kept. Yet 
the insurrection failed. 

This arose from several causes. The original Mutiny 
at Meerut began before it was intended, and before the 
general outbreak which was to follow, or to occur simul- 
taneously, was ready. The agricultural population over the 
greater part of India did not sympathise sufficiently with 
the revolt to oppose actively, or even passively, the opera- 
tions of the Government troops; the vast number of camp- 
followers required to enable an army to move under Euro- 
pean leadership never fell short for want of recruits. The 
insurgents developed no really capable leader, nor anyone 
of first-rate initiative, with the exception of Tantia Topee 
and that famous princess the Ranee of Jhansi, who were not 
sufficiently supported. On the other hand, the English sol- 
diers and officers exhibited wonderful vigour, courage and 
endurance; while individual civilian officials of the Govern- 
ment, who had been long in the country and were known 
and trusted by the Indians under their control, kept whole 
districts quiet, which would otherwise have joined the in- 
surgents. 

But, above all, the English Government owed its suc- 
cessful suppression of the outbreak to the fact that the 
Sikhs, the great people who had most recently been de- 
feated by the foreign rulers, took sides with their con- 
querors and rendered invaluable assistance, which ensured 
victory to the Europeans. The rising was therefore put 
down, and all Hindustan came under the direct or indirect 
control of the British Crown. Thereupon the periodical 
survey, which was necessary before the East India Com- 
pany could obtain the renewal of its Charter, was done 
away with, and one more reasonable security for justice 
was abrogated. 

India, with its 315,000,000 of inhabitants, has for just 



The British in India 205 

sixty years been under the management of the most ex- 
traordinary and fortuitous system of foreign domination 
known in the history of man. The rulers come in succes- 
sion from without, educated, until their appointment at 
the age of more than twenty-one, in accordance with meth- 
ods as remote from, and as irreconcilable with, Asiatic 
ideas as it is possible for them to be. Alike in their work 
and in their pleasure, they keep as far aloof from the 
people they govern as possible. Very rarely do they marry 
Indians : still more rarely do they settle permanently in 
the country. The head of the Government, who himself is 
brought out fresh from Europe, and is entirely ignorant 
of India, does not remain in office for more than five years. 
His subordinates return "home" frequently for their holi- 
days and go back to England permanently, to live on a 
considerable pension, after their term of service is com- 
pleted. 

The longer this reign of well-meaning but unsym- 
pathetic carpet-baggers continues the less intimate do their 
general relations with the Indian people become. The colour 
and race prejudice, which existed not at all, or to a very 
small extent, at the beginning of English dominance, now 
becomes stronger and stronger every year. In India itself 
men of ancient lineage, beside which the descent of the 
oldest European aristocracy is a mushroom growth, are* 
considered in the Presidency Towns, as well as on the rail- 
ways, unfit to associate on equal terms with white young 
bureaucrats just arrived in the country. And these "com- 
petition-wallahs," owing their position too often to desk- 
work, though clever enough in their own way, lack nowa- 
days that indescribable quality of the Sahib or "gentle- 
man" which is nowhere so instinctively recognised as in 
Asia. 

The consequences of all this will appear later. In view 
of these simple facts it is astounding that the English ad- 



2o6 The Awakening of Asia 

ministration should be so successful as it has been and even 
now is. But still more wonderful does it seem that another 
and more formidable upheaval should not have come al- 
ready. The complete disarmament of the population and 
the careful efforts made to perpetuate, and even to intensify, 
the old obstacles to common action between the various sec- 
tions of the population have, however, done much to keep 
things as they are. 

I will quote an English writer who knew India well and 
cannot be accused of being in the least degree hostile to his 
own countrymen, who, on the contrary, throughout his ca- 
reer looked at most questions from an English point of 
view: "Not only is there no white race in India, not only 
is there no white Colony, but there is no white man who 
purposes to remain. . . . No ruler stays there to help, to criti- 
cise or educate his successor. No white soldier founds a 
family. No white man who makes a fortune builds a 
house or buys an estate for his descendants. The very 
planter, the very engine-driver, the very foreman of works, 
departs before he is sixty, leaving no child, no house, no 
trace of himself behind. No white man takes root in India, 
and the number even of sojourners is among those masses 
imperceptible." 

And on what is this alien supremacy based? Upon 
fifteen hundred foreign administrators isolated among the 
hundreds of millions of Indians — rari nanfes in gurgito 
vasto — not one of whom, with the best intentions in the 
world, and enjoying a far closer intimacy with his sub- 
jects than a modern Civil Servant would claim, can exer- 
cise any lasting influence on the people committed to his 
charge. These are the district officers, the real rulers 
of India, upon whom the true responsibilities of govern- 
ment fall. Each of them is in his way a Governor, and 
these are some of his duties : He is— 

Collector of the Land Revenue. 



The British in India 207 

Registrar of the landed property in the District. 

Judge between landlord and tenant. 

Ministerial officer of the Courts of Justice. 

Treasurer and Accountant of the District. 

Ex-officio President of the local rates Committee. 

Referee for all questions of compensation for lands 
taken up for public purposes. 

Agent for the Government in all local suits to which 
it is a party. 

Referee in local Public Works. 

Magistrate, Police Magistrate and Criminal Judge. 

Head of the Police. 

Ex-officio President of Municipalities.* 

It is utterly impossible that all these multifarious du- 
ties, with the endless reports that have to be written and the 
questions with superiors which have to be discussed, can 
be performed satisfactorily. Many of the ablest of the 
Civil Servants themselves admit that this is so. But they 
can suggest no remedy which would not involve the re- 
moval of the existing European domination. Constant 
transfers from district to district and frequent furloughs 
to Europe make things worse. Here again is a criticism 
by an English official in India, when the situation was by 
no means so acute as it is to-day. This official himself 
was brought into contact with Indians much more familiarly 
than most of his countrymen, his family also had been con- 
nected with India for more than a century, and furnished 
two or three Directors to the East India Company : 

"It is in general sadly true that Englishmen in India 
live totally estranged from the people among whom they 
are sojourning. This estrangement is partly unavoidable, 
being the result of national customs, language, and caste. 
But, on the whole, there is no doubt, I think, that it might 
in great part be removed if Englishmen would make up 

* Sir William Hunter first gave this list. 



2o8 The Awakening of Asia 

their minds (but how can they be ordered to do so?) to 
assume a less contemptuous attitude. Some natives in some 
respects are (it must be admitted) contemptible; but not 
all, or nearly all. We may say that, while there is fault 
on both sides, the greater fault is on our side, because we 
have not performed a duty — clearly laid upon us by the 
nature of our position in India — of striving to understand 
the natives. The English contempt proceeds in the main 
from English ignorance, and English ignorance is accom- 
panied, as so often happens, by English bluster. Those who 
have known the natives well have generally liked them, even 
loved them, and their love has been returned with a re- 
markable wealth of unselfish affection. That natives are 
worth the effort of knowing, no humane person can doubt; 
but because with the difference of language and habits it 
does take some effort to know them, most Englishmen keep 
aloof. This tendency to aloofness is greater than it used 
to be, and is, I fear, increasing. This is a great misfortune. 
Some think that the increased tendency comes from an 
increase of Europeans of a lower social order than those 
who formerly came to India. It may be so; if so it can 
only be regarded and deplored as a new (but necessary) 
order of things. Certain it is the natives consider the 
Sahib is not what he used to be — certain, too, that English 
rule is not popular. 

"This is the great social calamity attending our Raj 
in India. For it is not easy to dictate a remedy. Nothing 
can be effected by preaching or exhortation. The examples 
of Englishmen placed in high office may do, and have done, 
something to foster goodwill between the different races; 
but the respect due to high office necessarily involves some 
formality, and forbids the expression of cordial sentiments. 
On the whole, nothing tangible can be achieved till the or- 
dinary Englishman begins by treating the ordinary native 
as worthy to be known, and treats him, when found worthy, 



The British in India 209 

as an equal and a friend. But that happy day has not come 
yet. The army of the 'damned nigger' PhiHstines is 
strong." 

There can be no doubt that the war has tended to in- 
crease the general disaffection in India, nor that this dis- 
affection will grow still further unless the British Govern- 
ment makes up its mind to grant Indians all that their 
leaders now demand, and prepares the way for still greater 
concessions in the near future. The people of England 
do not understand this. The Anglo-Indian authorities, as 
well as the Government at home, still think they can safely 
side-track or cajole the whole movement. That is what the 
Indians themselves sadly anticipate, and they know it must 
inevitably lead to very great trouble. This Englishmen, 
cannot believe, because they pay attention only to the much- 
advertised loyalty of the great Indian Princes and the quiet 
maintained by the people themselves during the period of 
hostilities. But the Princes, as matters stand, could not 
do otherwise; and they expect, besides, full recognition 
and reward from the rulers of Hindustan. The nations 
and peoples themselves are all unarmed and incapable of 
an organised rising, but they too demand fair treatment 
from a country which has been fighting, so it declares, for 
the freedom and rights of nationalities. 

As to the Indian Princes, the important Conference held 
for five days between these magnates and the English Vice- 
roy at Delhi in 1916 must open the eyes of all except those 
who will not see. Hindoo rulers of every grade and sect 
attended, side by side with Mohammedan chieftains. These 
notables chose as their representative and spokesman, when 
demanding different and better conditions, the Hindu Gaik- 
war of Baroda. Now, the Gaikwar of Baroda is not only 
the leader of the advanced party among the higher section 
of the Hindoos, but, when the King-Emperor George V 
himself held his great Imperial Durbar at Delhi, it was 



210 , The Awakening of Asia 

generally considered throughout India that he deliberately 
failed in courtesy to the European monarch. This was 
apologised for and explained away at the time. But the 
impression remains, and Asiatics are quite subtle enough to 
overlook the apology and rejoice at the offence. And it was 
the Gaikwar of Baroda who was put forward to champion 
the cause of his fellow-Princes and himself to Lord Chelms- 
ford ! This one fact, and the solid front maintained by the 
native rulers, far more than outweighs all the loans and 
offers of services made by them for the war. Yet the 
Independent Princes of India and their 70,000,000 sub- 
jects are the one section of India who may be regarded as 
gaining advantages from British rule and British peace. 

As to the people, the war will influence them too. Their 
men were fighting side by side with Europeans in Europe, 
on equal terms but for very inferior rates of pay. They 
understand that, if they understand nothing else. When 
they get back to India and return to their villages, they 
will do much to destroy the illusion that white troops must 
always, and under all circumstances, be superior to col- 
oured men. Moreover, the sense of injustice and bad faith 
under which they suffer will be communicated to all their 
kinsfolk. However anxious the upper and trading classes 
of Great Britain may be to keep peace and contentment in 
Hindustan, they must surely see that unfair treatment of 
this sort is likely to spread downright hostility to British 
rule among that very section of the population with whom 
they ought to ingratiate themselves. On matters of this 
personal nature Hindoo and Moslem, Sikh, Pathan, Hydera- 
badi and Mahratta will all be of one mind, even if their 
particular section has not been serving on the foreign 
battlefields. 

Then the war was extremely costly to India. Not 
only has she rendered the dominant foreign Power help in 
every other way, but, poverty-stricken as she is, India has 



The British in India 211 

been compelled to lend Great Britain a huge sum. In order 
to pay interest upon this amount, the Government of India 
has imposed import duties upon manufactured cotton goods. 
This was absolutely necessary if the interest was to be paid, 
and the "Home Government" in London sanctioned the 
duties. Thereupon the cotton manufacturers of Lancashire 
raised a great and exceeding bitter cry and began a serious 
agitation. "Lancashire," as an eminent Indian, long resi- 
dent in England, said to me, "has always been a bitter 
enemy of India." No doubt this enmity is not intentional : 
it is all in the way of business. But the effect upon India 
of the Cobdenite laissez-faire policy has been and is ruin- 
ous. It first partly arrested Indian cotton manufacture, by 
heavy protective duties against them : then, when capital 
drained from India by sheer robbery had built up Lan- 
cashire cotton factories, the Indian weavers were ruined by 
free trade. Lastly, now, this policy is maintained, in spite 
of its cruelty to rising native industry and to the over-taxed 
ryot who is threatened with an increase of the salt-tax. 
True, the Lancashire demand has been refused for the 
moment, but India is in a perilous state. The original 
forced loan was shameful and is so considered by Indians. 
The taxes to pay interest upon it constitute an excessive 
impost. But Lancashire would enforce the worst form of 
tax on the ryot rather than be hurt even to a small ex- 
tent. 

Meanwhile, India is still shut out from the possibility of 
receiving any education for the people. We Englishmen 
deplore their ignorance. This is how we enlighten them: 
Out of the total Revenue raised in British India — that is 
to say, India directly under British rule — we spend only 
one penny per head on education and only 1.9 per cent, of 
the population go to school. The improvement during the 
last ten years has been almost nominal. Yet even in Rus- 
sia, a very poor and backward country, the expenditure on 



212 The Awakening of Asia 

education is 7^d. per head, and the children at school 
number between 4 per cent, and 5 per cent, of the whole 
population. These facts do not come home to the agricul- 
tural classes of India, which form the overwhelming ma- 
jority of the inhabitants directly. But they are learning now 
from others how grossly they are being defrauded of the 
instruction to which they have a right. What makes the 
neglect of British rule in this respect the more disgraceful 
are the facts that in the Native State of Baroda, in 1910, 
more than 8.6 of the total population was at school as 
against 1.9 in British Territory, while now it is stated that 
100 per cent, of the boys of school age in Baroda are re- 
ceiving instruction, as against 21.5 per cent, in British In- 
dia, and 81.6 per cent, of girls against about 4 per cent. 
Yet the Anglo-Indian Government of Hindustan claims to 
be a civilised and highly progressive administration. The 
Indians are fast learning that it is really very reactionary 
indeed, when compared even with some of the rulers of their 
own race. 

Whether the great upheaval in Russia will affect India 
as a whole it is too soon yet to say. That educated Indians 
are greatly encouraged by this important change, by them 
so little expected, is already certain; and the establish- 
ment of the Chinese Republic has likewise inspired the 
abler among them to aim at similar development. 

Over and above the Europeans immediately concerned 
in administration, there are many more occupied directly 
or indirectly in other branches of Government affairs. But 
in all India there are no more than 200,000 Europeans and 
Eurasians altogether. These are, for the most part, entirely 
outside the official class. 

The British Empire in India really consists, therefore, 
of the bureaucrats spoken of and 75,000 English troops, 
of whom 50,000 at the outside can be reckoned as fit for 
active service at any given moment. The native Indian 



The British in India 213 

army, which is some three times as numerous, could scarce- 
ly be relied upon as trustworthy at any period of serious 
internal trouble. This is generally admitted, and Indians 
and other nationalities without the borders of Hindustan 
are well aware of its truth. Moreover, a peaceful upset of 
the entire artificial English system is quite possible at any 
moment, seeing that, as has been truly said by an Imperial- 
ist Englishman, "Indians themselves have only to refuse to 
work for Europeans, and the whole white Empire would be 
brought to an end within a month." Certain it is that if 
the agricultural population, hitherto so quiescent (with the 
exception of a few local outbreaks against usurers and ex- 
cessive water-tax), were to become even passively hostile, 
British rule would soon be a thing of the past. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE UNSOUNDNESS OF BRITISH INDIAN FINANCE 

The agricultural population of India is the most poverty- 
stricken mass of human beings in the whole world. It 
constitutes four-fifths of the whole of the inhabitants 
of Hindustan. Now it so happens that forty years ago I 
had a very vigorous controversy about the conditions of 
this vast body of agriculturists which, in spite of much- 
lauded "progress" in other directions, has been getting 
poorer and poorer ever since. In the course of that widely- 
read discussion, one of my chief opponents was an Indian 
Judge of the highest standing, who had resided for far the 
greater part of his adult life in India. He generally de- 
voted his vacations to travelling all over the country, mostly 
at a foot's pace, and he gave the following account of these 
ryots of India in the course of a long and vigorous article 
directed against my contentions as to the poverty of British 
India : 

"The dense population, amounting in its more fertile 
parts to six and seven hundred per square mile, is almost 
exclusively occupied in agricultural pursuits. But the land 
of India has been farmed from time immemorial by men 
entirely without capital. A farmer in this country has little 
chance of success unless he can supply a capital of £io to 
£20 an acre. If English farms were cultivated by men as 
deficient in capital as the Indian ryots, they would all be 
thrown upon the parish in a year or two. The founder of 
a Hindu village may, by the aid of his brethren and friends, 
have strength enough to break up the jungle, dig a well 

214 



British Indian Finance 215 

and, with a few rupees in his pocket, he may purchase seed 
for the few acres he can bring under the plough. If a 
favourable harvest ensue, he has a large surplus, out of 
which he pays the jamma or rent to Government. But, 
on the first failure of the periodical rains, his withered crops 
disappear; he has no capital wherewith to meet the Gov- 
ernment demand, to obtain food for his family and stock, 
or to purchase seed for the coming year. To meet all these 
wants he must have recourse to the village money-lender 
[whence, by the way, did he get his capital?] — who has al- 
ways formed as indispensable a member of a Hindu agri- 
cultural community as the ploughman himself. 

"Every Englishman in office in India has great powers, 
and every Englishman — as the late Lord Lytton once ob- 
served to me — is in heart a reformer. His native energy 
will not enable him to sit still with his hands before him. 
He must be improving something. The tendency of the 
English official in India is to over-reform, to introduce what 
he may deem improvements, but which turn out egregious 
failures, and this, be it observed, amongst the most con- 
servative people of the world. Some of the most carefully 
devised schemes for native improvement have culminated in 
native deterioration. 

"Every ardent administrator desires improvements in 
his own department; roads, railways, canals, irrigation, im- 
proved courts of justice, more efficient police, all find earnest 
advocates in the higher places of government. But im- 
proved administration is always costly, and requires addi- 
tional taxation. I fear those in authority too often forget 
that the wisest rulers of a despotic Government have al- 
ways abstained from laying fresh burdens on the people. 
It is, in fact, the chief merit of such a Government that the 
taxes are ordinarily light, and are such as are familiarised 
by old usage. New taxes, imposed without the will or any 
appeal to the judgment of the people, create the most dan- 



2i6 The Awakening of Asia 

gerous kind of disaffection. But if this is true generally, 
it is especially true in India, where the population is ex- 
tremely poor, and where hitherto the financier has not been 
enabled to make the rich contribute their due quota to the 
revenue of the country." 

These admissions by a Member of the Council of India 
seem to me conclusive alike as to the poverty of the great 
mass of Indians and the complete unsuitability of European 
administration to cope with it. 

The true test of the prosperity and good government 
of any country is not the average income of the whole 
population, in which the revenues of the millionaires, great 
landowners and heads of industrial or transport companies 
balance the wages received by the artisans, small cultivators 
or agricultural labourers, but the real well-being of the 
whole of the producing class. Now this in India is steadily 
deteriorating decade by decade and year by year. Mr. 
William Digby's book with the misleading, ironical title, 
"Prosperous British India," which I implored him not to 
use, was published in 1901. It contains the most terrific 
indictment of British rule in Hindustan that has ever been 
penned. The facts and statistics contained in its 650 pages 
are drawn almost entirely from official reports, documents 
and calculations. The whole constitutes a social, economic 
and political investigation of surpassing interest and value. 
One categorical statement alone is enough to condemn the 
entire British system : 

In the year 1850, seven years before the Mutiny, the 
estimated income of British India was twopence per head 
per day. 

In the year 1882 — a generation later — the officially- 
estimated income was three-halfpence per head per day. 

In the year 1900 an analysis of all sources of income 
gives less than three-farthings per head per day. 

What the real impoverishment of the Indian ryots or 



British Indian Finance 217 

agriculturists of British India actually must be, when the 
income of all the well-to-do population in the cities and dis- 
tricts of Anglo-India is deducted, can scarcely be imagined 
by the inhabitants of the poorest European State. 

Can we wonder that a sense of deadly dullness, depres- 
sion and ruin weighs on that portion of Hindustan where 
Europeanisation is supreme? It is not poverty alone that 
occasions this sad state of things. Everything tends in the 
same direction. Native Indian arts are disappearing, edu- 
cation is neglected, there is no life or pleasure available, no 
outlet for energy, no hope of change, no variety of occupa- 
tion. An American traveller, in a recent book full of un- 
measured glorification of Europeans and European rule, 
has described the vivacity, colour and magnificence of the 
Court of Udaipur in all its ancient splendour, side by side 
with ancient indifference, ancient abhorrence of what is 
new, ancient love of ancient customs and ancient devotion 
to a sacrosanct ruler possessed of a pedigree directly trace- 
able for thousands of years. And then he cannot restrain 
himself from comparing this un-Europeanised relic of the 
past, still holy to scores of millions of Hindoos, with the 
squalid monotony and unending sadness which pervade 
British India. 

It may be that, as the majority of Englishmen and Eu- 
ropean visitors believe, India can never emancipate herself, 
without external aid, from her present position of sub- 
jugation. Whether it is consonant with the claims of Eng- 
land to be the champion of justice and freedom in other 
directions that she should keep what might be a great and 
glorious Empire under her permanent and ruinous domina- 
tion is a matter which must soon be considered. It will be 
seen also that of late years a school of extremists, as well 
as a school of moderates, has grown up, both of which de- 
mand self-government, and, in the long run, complete eman- 
cipation of India. 



2i8 The Awakening of Asia 

When, however, these criticisms on European rule are 
made and evidences of continuous and increasing poverty 
of the ryots are adduced, the defenders of the British Gov- 
ernment bring forward a number of facts and figures which 
are conclusive of prosperity to the ordinary Western mind. 
Against the contention that, so far, i6o years of European 
management and teaching have produced no enduring ef- 
fect on the Indian mind and have introduced no perma- 
nent, improvement in Indian affairs, one great argument is 
always used. "See," say the opportunists, "how we have 
introduced everywhere the blessings of peace! From the 
Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and from Burma to Bombay, 
wars have ceased, internecine struggles are unknown, re- 
ligious riots are at once quelled, life and property are se- 
cure as they never were before in the history of Hindustan. 
The Pax Britannica is more profound and affects a larger 
population than the Pax Romana ever did. 

"Here, under British rule, all these numerous nations 
and peoples and religions and castes dwell together, if not 
in unity, at any rate, with trifling differences. Hindu 
and Mohammedan, Sikh, Pathan and Mahratta go on from 
year's end to year's end with no more than local squabbles 
which are easily suppressed. Raids and organised robberies 
are almost equally unknown. Justice is administered with- 
out the suspicion of bribery, or the possibility of dangerous 
disputes, out of Court, on the decision arrived at. The 
military caste no longer exercises any injfiiuence. Peace, 
the greatest boon that can be vouchsafed to the hundreds 
of millions under the suzerainty of the Emperor-King, is 
secured so long as the British remain masters of the coun- 
try. But only so long. Let that superior power be once 
withdrawn, or even greatly shaken, and all the anarchy of 
the past will be revived, all the infinite passions now kept 
down will be reawakened." 

Such is the tone, not only of Englishmen but of most 



British Indian Finance 219 

Europeans and Americans who visit the country, who rush 
by rail through the Europeanised towns and cities and gar- 
risons and heahh resorts which constitute the white man's 
India. That the horrors of peace may in many ways be 
worse than the horrors of war is a consideration which 
never enters their minds, still less affects their judgment. 
All the tests of prosperity which they are accustomed to ap- 
ply are fulfilled. Population is increasing rapidly : Poverty 
is favourable to generation. Exports are rapidly increas- 
ing: What is the amount of the return? Railways have 
been built over a large portion of the country: Transport 
does not necessarily increase wealth. Vast irrigation works 
have been built : Old irrigation tanks have been allowed to 
decay throughout huge areas. The charges for the new 
water are heavy— rendered heavier by the enforced use of 
Government water to the exclusion and shutting down of 
Indian wells. These counterbalancing movements are never 
noted. Foreign-manufactured peace is a doubtful benefit 
at the best. 

All that is great and admirable in India was created 
during the period when she was an independent Empire, 
with groups of fine Provinces, first under local rulers and 
then under the central domination of the Mongols. With all 
their drawbacks and hideous cruelties, these conquerors 
lived in the country. They employed Hindoos of all races 
in the very highest posts, as financiers, as administrators, 
as generals — Mohammedans though they themselves were. 
Asiatics ruling Asiatics, they knew how far it was safe to 
go without bringing ruin upon the people and overthrow 
upon themselves. Even in their period of decay, when 
debauched incompetents sat on the throne of Akbar and 
Aurungzib, the rule which they maladministered was In- 
dian rule, and dull despair under the upright foreign despot 
never settled like a miasma on the country. 

The Mahratta chout levied by the bold reivers of the 



220 The Awakening of Asia 

Deccan and the West was hard to bear. But, impoverish- 
ing as it was, in its degree and in its time, it counted as 
child's-play beside the persistent transfer of wealth to a 
far-away country year after year, which was the inevitable 
consequence of costly foreign rule. Moreover, all home- 
bred rulers encouraged Indian art and Indian manufacture, 
and the best of them, such as the great Bahmuny dynasty 
of Beejapoor, developed local irrigation works to such an 
extent that the menace of famine, where this was done, be- 
came more and more remote. There were terrible famines 
indeed in some districts and provinces in those days, prior 
to European invasion. But they came at long intervals and 
in the periods between them there was no steady, continu- 
ous reduction of the amount of food available for the 
people, whose persistent labour provided the whole of the 
agricultural produce. 

Peace, in fact, may be purchased too dear, and law and 
order, however admirable theoretically, may become a 
grinding economic and racial tyranny, if enforced by for- 
eigners who fail to comprehend alike the nature of the 
many diverse races beneath them and the best means of 
raising them to a higher level of prosperity — foreigners 
who never remain permanently in the land they control. 

Let us suppose that a succession of capable Chinese 
Mandarins, supported by a Chinese army and an Italian 
army under Chinese officers, had ruled in Italy, imposing 
peace, perfect peace, upon the City Republics a few hun- 
dred years ago. They would have imposed also Chinese 
ideas of morality and justice, industry and culture — and 
very high ideas they were and are — upon the countrymen 
of Dante and Petrarch, Borgia, Machiavelli and Leonardo 
da Vinci. But is it not clear that the world would have 
been infinitely poorer for the repression of Italian initiative 
and by the sombre, dead level of monotony and dependence 
thus brought about? Would not ItaHans have been justi- 



British Indian Finance 221 

fied in resorting to any means in order to relieve themselves 
from such a rule, however high-minded and well-inten- 
tioned its Chinese representatives in Italy might have been ? 
Would not this have applied, in like manner, to England 
during the Wars of the Roses, to France at the time of 
the anarchic and bloody struggle between Catholics and 
Huguenots, and even to Germany when devastated by the 
Thirty Years' War? There can be but one honest an- 
swer given to these questions. 

Yet India was never in a more perturbed condition, 
never suffered more from internal misrule or attacks from 
without, than the different countries named at the periods 
referred to. And the rigidity and miscomprehension of 
Chinese domination in Europe could scarcely under any cir- 
cumstances have been greater than the rigidity and miscom- 
prehension of European despotism in Hindustan. 

"Peace is an excellent thing." So wrote Philip of 
Macedon. Peace may be an accursed thing, if accompanied 
by foreign tyranny and economic ruin. 

It was the economic pressure which perhaps first roused 
the more intelligent Indians to a full comprehension of the 
permanent injury which persistent Europeanisation was in- 
flicting upon India as a whole. And this was first appre- 
ciated and forcibly expounded, not by Indians themselves, 
but by English merchants and administrators in the days 
of the East India Company, long before the Mutiny or 
National Revolt of 1857 had openly manifested the dis- 
content, on other grounds, which existed below. Thus, even 
at the time when the real significance of the yearly drain of 
produce to England from India was far less, alike in amount 
and effect, than it is to-day, an Englishman, Mr. Mont- 
gomery Martin, pointed out what the wholesale transfer of 
Indian wealth to England really meant. 

N The amount paid to the West in one shape or another, 
up to 1857, amounted to many hundreds of millions of 



222 The Awakening of Asia 

pounds sterling, without any commercial return. India, that 
is to say, had been depleted of her wealth to that extent 
for the benefit of England, as a consequence of European 
conquest and rule. Even the abolition of suttee by Lord 
William Bentinck, the check to female infanticide, and the 
suppression of the Thugs made no economic amends for 
this ruinous impoverishment of a poor country, all of whose 
territory was already occupied, some of it tilled to the 
point of exhaustion and some very densely populated. But 
this drain of produce enormously increased after the as- 
sumption of direct government by the Crown and the great 
extension of Europeanisation in every direction. 

The higher minds in the Government service strongly in- 
sisted upon the great and increasing danger of this economic 
policy. Civil Servants and military men alike enlarged 
upon the ruin that was being wrought. Mr. James Geddes 
and Mr. A. O. Hume, Major Evans Bell and Colonel Os- 
borne, Mr. William Digby and Mr. Knight, all in their 
various ways, did their best to represent to the Government 
in England and in India the irretrievable mischief that was 
being done. So did others. The famous Parsee, Mr. 
Dadabhai Naoroji himself, only too fast a friend of British 
rule in India, devoted himself also for many years to this 
question. All to no purpose. At one point, 1878-79-80, 
the English Government at home did appreciate what was 
going on, and Lord Salisbury and Lord Iddesleigh, with 
the concurrence of Lord Cranbrook, Lord Beaconsfield, 
Mr. Edward Stanhope and Sir Louis Mallet, made the 
first steps toward the gradual restoration of Indian rule 
— steps which had been most successfully taken in Mysore 
in 1868, to the permanent advantage of the population. 
There the removal of the rigid system of taxation and the 
revival of the old Indian system of consideration of Indian 
needs at once uplifted the well-being of the entire popula- 
tion of that territory. 



British Indian Finance 223 

But the influence of the hidebound Indian bureaucracy 
and the personal interest of the middle-class at home were 
too strong to be resisted. On the return of Mr. Gladstone's 
Liberal Administration to power all the preliminary re- 
forms introduced were swept away; and from that time to 
this Europeanisation has become more and more the panacea 
for all evils, the foreign government has become more ex- 
pensive still, and extravagances such as the creation of 
new and wholly unnecessary capital cities at Delhi and 
Dacca, have wasted India's resources to the extent of many 
millions sterling. Naturally, to keep pace with this fatal 
system, the land-tax is more cruelly exacted than ever, and 
the agriculturists get poorer all the time. 

Compare this with the statement of Mr. Chester Mac- 
naghten upon the comparative results of Indian rule to- 
day: "The fact is, that under existing circumstances, a 
Native State under British superiors is almost an ideal 
of prosperity. This remark is a general one applying to 
Travancore, Mysore, etc., as well as to Baroda. While 
the people are governed in their own simple way, the rev- 
enue is not wasted. The peace and prosperity which char- 
acterise the rural population of India are maintained, while 
the corruption and dishonesty which characterise Native 
Courts are checked. The system is an inexpensive one to 
the States which enjoy it and contains all that is best in 
British and Native methods. I believe it is only true to 
assert that there is not a single Native State in India which, 
if so administered, will not show a surplus." And these 
Indian States have little, if any, drain of payments to Eu- 
rope. Even so, there is in some of these States too much 
meddling by the European Residents [technical term for 
European advisers] with a tendency to exaggerate in prac- 
tice the current bureaucratic belief in Europeanisation. 

But the phenomenon of the economic drain calls for 
closer investigation. This is specially injurious, of course. 



224 The Awakening of Asia 

to a poor country. It may arise to all appearance ad- 
vantageously and without the additional drawback of for- 
eign rule, and yet be a very serious hindrance to the coun- 
try which suffers from it. On the other hand, it may con- 
stitute, comparatively, so small a proportion of the total 
wealth of the country, increased by the investment of 
loaned capital, on which the economic drain represents the 
interest, that the advances can be redeemed with ease at 
maturity. 

Both the United States and Russia have been and are 
still large borrowers — the former to a small amount in re- 
lation to its wealth: the latter constantly requiring loans. 
But the United States is still an undeveloped country, rich 
in virgin agricultural soil and vast mineral resources, de- 
veloped by the constant exertions of a vigorous and, in the 
main, not needy population from Europe. Railway commu- 
nication affords profitable outlet for all products, and if 
the lines were overloaded with indebtedness the companies 
simply did not pay. As the wealth of the vast territory grew 
the loans and bonds were bought back or the capital bor- 
rowed again at a lower rate of interest for new enterprises. 
It is the same with Municipal borrowings and State Loans 
issued in Europe.* 

With Russia, however, the case was and is different. 
The country outside of Siberia was already settled, the 
people were poor and ignorant, the development, except in 
the oil regions, did not keep pace with the borrowing, the 
agriculturists, mostly emancipated serfs, got no richer. 
Therefore, the unwieldy Muscovite Empire, with all its 
wealth and undeveloped resources, could not sustain the 
drain of produce to the West for the interest on the money 
that was advanced. Thus it befell that ever more and more 
loans were needed to keep up payment of interest. Prior 

♦ The war has constituted America the creditor instead of the debtor 
of Europe. 



British Indian Finance 225 

to the war of 1914, Russia was fully £150,000,000 behind- 
hand in the payments to meet her liabilities for interest and 
profits to Western creditors, mostly French. Her yearly 
debt on this account was not far short of £55,000,000 ster- 
ling. So, as shown in her account of exports and imports, 
she was nearly three years overdue in meeting her indebted- 
ness — a deficit which had been covered by all sorts of 
shifts. Russian agriculture, the mainstay of that great 
country, had lost instead of gaining strength, as was clearly 
shown first by Professor Issaieff and then by Professor 
Milyukov. 

The difference between the United States and Russia 
is obvious. In the one case the imported capital had en- 
hanced and quickened production far beyond the amount 
needed to pay the yearly interest : in the other, the interest 
represented for the most part a deduction from produc- 
tion, which had diminished in agriculture, and not suffi- 
ciently expanded in manufacture and mining. Hence the 
drain of Russian produce is ruinous and bankruptcy and 
repudiation have become inevitable, if utter ruin is to be 
averted. 

But the real economic condition of India is far worse 
even than this. Putting aside the profits on tea-planting, 
gold-mining and other enterprises established and financed 
by English capitalists, which cannot be fairly regarded as 
withdrawals from actual Indian wealth, seeing that these 
ventures are purely European, the total amount of the pay- 
ments made in produce from India to England without any 
commercial return is not less than £30,000,000 every year. 
This is an understatement of the truth. 

Moreover, the drain does not apply to the so-called Na- 
tive States, that is to say to States under British protection 
but not under direct British rule. These great Provinces 
not only are relatively wealthy, in comparison with the 
rest of poverty-stricken Hindustan, so far as their agri- 



226 The Awakening of Asia 

cultural population is concerned, but they have practi- 
cally no remittances to make to England on Civil and Mili- 
tary account, and little for interest on railways. Their 
trade, therefore, is relatively greater per head of popula- 
tion, and their exports and imports, by all rules of finance, 
must balance, when the figures are properly given. But, as 
the English trade returns are made out, it is practically 
impossible for any outside investigator or critic to dis- 
criminate correctly between the commercial dealings of 
British Territory proper and those of these great Native 
States which contain considerably more than one-fifth of 
the entire inhabitants of Hindustan. The drain of produce, 
therefore, I say, is derived not from the 315,000,000 of 
people in India but from 245,000,000: the 70,000,000 in 
the Protected Territories being deducted.* And the trade 
of these 70,000,000 constitutes in reality much more than 
one-fifth of the total trade. 

This is a very important fact in considering the economic 
effect of European rule in Asia, and it is not generally rec- 
ognised. For in the calculations which follow it must al- 
ways be borne in mind that certainly not less than one- 
fourth of the trade imports and a very much greater pro- 
portion of the treasure imports go into the countries which 
are not under direct British rule — the great Native States 
with 70,000,000 inhabitants, to wit, which are not victims 
of the drain. 

The total amount of exports by sea of private mer- 
chandise of Indian products from British India and the 
Native States together for the five years 1909-10 to 191 3-14 
was £731,657,602, or an average of £146,331,520 a year. 

The total amount of imports by sea of private merchan- 
dise during the same period of five years was £486,157,310. 
Here is a difference of not less than £245,000,000 between 
the exports and the imports of private merchandise or a 
♦Census of 191 1. 



British Indian Finance 227 

yearly disparity of £49,000,000, without return in the form 
of merchandise, although the imports for 191 2-1 3 and 
191 3- 14 reached the exceptional figures of £107,000,000 
and £122,000,000 respectively. 

Now against this extraordinary discrepancy the almost 
equally remarkable import of treasure, ranging from 
£25,000,000 to as high as £41,000,000 in the years under 
consideration, is naturally put forward by official apologists 
for India's desperate poverty. But the Government of 
India has always refused to make any distinction between 
the exports and imports to and from the Native States and 
those of British India. I am quite confident that at least 
half of the imported treasure, as well as a great deal more 
than their proportional part of the imports of merchandise, 
goes into these Native States. The yearly drain from Brit- 
ish India of commercial produce for which there is no com- 
mercial return I put therefore at upwards of £30,000,000 
a year. 

Now if India, with its vast population, was even a mod- 
erately rich country, this drain of produce to a foreign 
Power going on year after year, and increasing rather than 
diminishing, would be a matter of concern, especially as it 
has proceeded now for just 160 years. But when the 
amount thus calculated is extorted from the poorest popu- 
lation on the planet, so poor that it seems impossible to 
give the total quantity of the subsistence of the Hindoo 
ryot in terms which are intelligible to English or American 
readers, then it is clear that the name which I gave to this 
process in The Nineteenth Century forty years ago, namely, 
"Bleeding to Death," precisely represents what is being 
done to the miserable ryots of British Hindustan by Eu- 
ropeanisation. Even the late Lord Salisbury spoke with 
regret of the fact that ''India must he hied." 

Lord Curzon did not estimate the average income of 
the Indians at more than £2 a year. Mr. William Digby 



228 The Awakening of Asia 

put the average value of the production of the cultivators 
at not more than 12s. 6d. a year per head. It is incon- 
ceivable to us that human beings can exist upon such a mis- 
erable pittance. Yet, out of this despicable return for con- 
stant work upon the soil, the Government Land Tax, which 
produces the Land Revenue, deducts no less a sum than 
£21,000,000 a year. 

Moreover, the British Government insisted upon this 
tax being paid by the cultivators before the crops were 
grown, and over a long period paid in silver calculated at 
a factitious rate. This meant that while the actual value of 
a rupee on the markets of the world may be not more than 
I id. or IS., the defrauded Hindoo ryot was compelled to 
pay his Government Land Tax in rupees at the rate of 
IS. 4d., or above 30 per cent, more than the rupee was 
worth — this, I repeat, before the crops were grown and 
reaped! What is the result of this? Inevitably that the 
cultivators are forced into the hands of the native money- 
lenders (called variously soucars, bunias or shroffs) at rates 
varying from 15 to 60 per cent. And then official apologists 
for the Government hold up their hands in horror at the 
exactions of the usurious moneylenders, who are brought 
into a more prominent position than they ever before occu- 
pied in India, are specially favoured by our courts, are 
fostered by our rigid methods, and have, when all is said, 
no very good security to lend upon. The result is that the 
Indian cultivators and their families are eating less and less 
as years go on, and that their position is becoming more 
and more hopeless all round. 

It is preposterous to argue that irrigation is remedying 
this state of things. Nothing of the sort. Irrigation ap- 
plies to a very small area as carried out under European 
engineers. Sometimes the quality of the water supplied 
has proved actually injurious, owing to miscalculation as 
to the nature of the silt it would carry with it. In other 



British Indian Finance 229 

cases, the charges have been in excess of the value of the 
water to the cultivators, who were compelled to take it and 
to close down their own wells in order to do so. 

Generally speaking, also, as the late Sir James Caird, 
the famous agricultural expert, pointed out in 1879, irri- 
gation, though often very beneficial, especially where manure 
is available, or the land is specially rich, cannot work mi- 
racles. If the soil is constantly being exhausted by over- 
cropping, irrigation by itself does no good. Nay, it only 
hastens on that economic catastrophe which Sir James pre- 
dicted. This prediction he made after his official visit to 
India, having before taken a totally different view of the 
position. It was not an Indian, also, but an Englishman, 
Mr. Thorburn, holding a high official post in Bengal, who 
said : "We are driving a Juggernaut car of Western progress 
over the fortunes of the people of India." The word 
"progress" is evidently used there in an ironical sense. Mr. 
Donald Smeaton, too, declared that England was working 
up in India to a revolt beside which "the Mutiny would be 
child's-play." 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE GROWING UNREST 

Notwithstanding Indian troops fighting the battle of the 
AlHes in Europe, in Mesopotamia, in Palestine and else- 
where, in spite of the much-advertised "loyalty" of the 
great Indian Princes, and in the face of the persistent as- 
sertion of English administrators in India that dissatis- 
faction is a negligible quantity, there can be no doubt in the 
mind of any unprejudiced observer that India, like Japan 
and China, is awakening. The European is rarely popu- 
lar: it is now being suspected that he is incapable. No 
doubt, with an unarmed population, an organised rising is 
no easy matter. But there are not wanting signs of dis- 
content in the native regiments, and it is an open secret 
that more than one of the Indian Magnates, unable to move 
to-day and professing lip-loyalty with all the fervour of the 
Asiatic, is at heart deeply disaffected. Though the Indian 
Princes are, of course, in a very enviable position as com- 
pared with the rest of Indians, it is difficult to see how this 
could be otherwise. They will not move until they feel that 
success is assured. The Gaikwar of Baroda may give evi- 
dence of temporary independence at the Durbar of the 
King-Emperor; but he, like the rest, will not run a great 
risk so long as British India itself remains quiet. 

If Englishmen were wise in their generation they would 
begin to take account of what is happening in their own 
directly-ruled territory, and meet the growing difficulties 
without fear and without prejudice or tyranny. The hope- 
lessness of overt resistance drives men to anarchy and 

230 



The Growing Unrest 231 

assassination. Under Indian rule this was commonly prac- 
tised. As Lord Morley, when Secretary for India, himself 
wrote : "Even the fiercest of Oriental tyrants ran some 
risk of having his throat cut, or his coffee poisoned, if he 
pushed things too far." The open attempt to bomb Lord 
Hardinge, the Viceroy, and other recent evidences of grow- 
ing uneasiness, may possible convince even the English 
aristocracy, capitalists and their bureaucracy that things are 
being pushed too far. 

The remarkable fact in relation to the Unrest in India 
is that it has taken most formidable shape during the past 
few years in precisely those two Provinces which, for dif- 
ferent reasons, have always been regarded, since the Mutiny, 
as most secure for British rule. These two are Bengal and 
the Punjab. Bengal, taken as a whole, is the most populous 
Province in British India. Its inhabitants equal the num- 
bers of those in all the independent Native States. But 
they were notoriously the most pacific folk of all Asia. 
Often it was said that if the British were driven out of the 
rest of Hindustan they could still maintain their hold on 
Bengal and the capital city of Calcutta. Bengal quietism 
had, in fact, become a byword, and Englishmen used to 
sneer habitually at the Bengalis as a servile set, who would 
put up with any insult and contumely from the English 
themselves, or from any of the fighting native races, with- 
out the slightest attempt at retort or resistance. Yet, in 
this extremely peace-loving province of Bengal, anarchist 
outrages and organised assassination have been used as 
weapons of political protest and almost of revolt. 

As often happens in the affairs of human life, neither 
despotic rule nor economic pressure was the cause of this 
unexpected outbreak, by no means as yet completely sup- 
pressed. Owing to the permanent settlement of the land-tax 
Bengal does not suffer so much as some other districts from 
the economic drain. The immediate occasion was a purely 



232 The Awakening of Asia 

sentimental grievance: the division of the ancient historic 
Province of Bengal into two separate Provinces, with dual 
capitals. This seems a trifling matter after all that had gone 
before. But it is not always the greatest grievances that 
bring about the greatest detestation. Protests against the 
division of the ancient Province, though they were made 
by Hindu Rajahs and Mohammedan Nawabs, speaking in 
harmony from the same platform, and joining in the same 
written remonstrances to the Government, remained un- 
heeded. The Press was rigorously interfered with. Those 
who pushed their antagonism to the measure with great 
vigour were arrested and condemned on one charge or an- 
other. 

Then a serious movement towards assassination began. 
Not only Government spies and police agents but English- 
men who had made themselves active against the public 
feeling were attacked and killed. What had happened? 
The "cowardly" race, as they were habitually called, these 
cringing sycophants, whose apathy awakened the contempt 
of their conquerors, suddenly shook off their pusillanimity 
and developed not an accidental one or two but a succession 
of cool, desperate, self-sacrificing young assassins who 
reckoned their own lives as nothing, who flouted the white 
judges in open court, who mocked at the horrors of an 
Indian prison. When they were condemned to death by 
hanging for the political crimes which they had committed, 
they went triumphantly to the scaffold, and were regarded 
as martyrs by their countrymen, and, what is far more 
remarkable, by their countrywomen. 

No such transformation of character and conduct has 
ever been seen. The masses of the people were stirred to 
their depths. The matter took on a religious shape. The 
most revered representatives of religion in the country par- 
ticipated in the endeavour to do honour to the men who 
had suffered for the common cause. After the execution 



Xhe Growing Unrest 233 

by hanging of one of the young fanatics, his body was 
obtained from the Government and was burnt on a funeral 
pyre in Calcutta with elaborate religious ceremonial. This 
remarkable religious demonstration was attended by up- 
wards of 50,000 persons, though the summons to attend 
was issued quite secretly. Among those present, to the 
astonishment of all the Europeans, were many well-to-do 
women of high caste — a thing quite unprecedented on such 
an occasion. A public outburst of this imposing character, 
in defiance of the Government, would have been quite im- 
possible a few years before. 

The sympathy with the fanatics was not confined to the 
towns. It spread throughout the Province, was felt in the 
remotest localities, and was manifested even by the children. 
Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal is a man of the most pacific turn 
of thought He has no belief in assassination as a method 
of protest. But he absolutely refused to give evidence in 
one of these cases of anarchist attack. For this he was 
imprisoned by the British Government. On his release, 
he was greeted as a hero, and Hindoos and Mohammedans 
combined to do him honour. Nothing was lacking to show 
the public appreciation of the service he had rendered to 
his fellow men and women by his courageous action. Re- 
ligious differences were suppressed, or forgotten, in the 
manifestation of a common race feeling. The portrait of 
Mr. Pal was carried through most of the villages of Ben- 
gal, and wherever it was seen was crowned with flowers. 

It is quite right to denounce assassination: anarchy is 
no remedy for misgovernment. But when public meet- 
ings are not allowed ; when freedom of the Press is entirely 
abrogated; when men are arrested, imprisoned and trans- 
ported to a criminal colony under an obsolete but resusci- 
tated law a century old, without trial and even without 
accusation; when young students are publicly flogged by 
an infamous person for purely political offences — when all 



234 The Awakening of Asia 

these things are done by a foreign Government, which has 
disarmed the whole people and allows them no direct rep- 
resentation whatever — it is impossible not to recognise that 
these anarchist outbreaks have been deliberately provoked. 

Such outbreaks are contrary to all law. That is granted. 
But when we read of the tyranny practised in Bengal in 
1907, which has been going on ever since, it is difficult not 
to sympathise to some extent with the young Bengali fana- 
tics who have committed these crimes. Those in England 
and America who have glorified Sophia Perovskiaia as a 
heroine, and have applauded Stepniak as a justified homi- 
cide, can scarcely denounce with furious indignation the 
Indian lads who, maddened by misgovernment which they 
are powerless to overthrow, protest, however criminally, 
against the continued domination which thus oppresses 
them. All moderate Indian reformers said that the bomb 
thrown at the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, which wounded 
him and killed others, was flung by a madman, and the act, 
they declared, would strengthen the reactionary party. But, 
since the war, the extremists in Bengal have seen wholly 
innocent folk treated with the greatest rigour, again with- 
out trial and without accusation. This has been done on 
the private delation of native official informers. Assassina- 
tion has, therefore, gone on too. 

Thus, whether Englishmen like to recognise it or not, 
whether they endeavour to suppress the growing disaffec- 
tion, or wisely meet it by introducing freedom and self- 
government for India, there can be no dispute that, in Ben- 
gal, the awakening has begun in earnest. And Bengal was, 
as said, the most peaceful Province in all Asia, as well as 
in all India. 

Yet what has occurred in the Punjab is even more sig- 
nificant. The Punjab was the garden of British India. 
There, if anywhere in all Asia, native rule under light and 
sympathetic European guidance, without harsh militarism. 



The Growing Unrest 235 

or doctrinaire bureaucracy, could have built up a great, 
powerful and prosperous Province. Such would have been 
the policy of that true statesman, Sir Henry Lawrence. 

The bulk of the population were, and even still are, 
widely as impoverishment has spread, a fine, upstanding, 
independent folk. Most of them are Sikhs : the descendants 
of the magnificent soldiery who largely conquered India 
for the English sixty years ago. If there was ever a case 
in which consideration should have been shown and justice 
and equity upheld, the case of the Sikhs of the Punjab 
was that special instance. 

The British Government should never have forgotten 
what it owed to the splendid fighters who stood by the for- 
eign rulers when, before the fall of Delhi, the possibility 
of victory for the Indian insurgents \\^as present to all 
minds. But Governments have short memories, particular- 
ly when they begin to feel the need for additional funds, 
and are becoming more than a little doubtful about the 
permanence of their own system. So Tsarist methods were 
tried in the Punjab, and, as in Bengal, they are being ap- 
plied to-day. 

Thus, eleven years ago, the editor of one of the Indian 
newspapers. The Punjabi of Lahore, made himself the 
mouthpiece of the personal and economic wrongs of the 
people. He even went so far as to criticise very unfavour- 
ably the conduct of one of the officials of the British Gov- 
ernment, who is now admitted to have behaved most un- 
fairly. This Indian editor and journalist was at once 
seized, handcuffed, treated in the most brutal manner, and 
clapped into jail as a common criminal. The Russians 
and all other European rulers discriminate between political 
offenders and ordinary homicides, burglars or pickpockets : 
we English do not, either in our own country or abroad. 
So the editor of The Punjabi found himself in prison side 
by side with felons of the worst type. The population of 



236 The Awakening of Asia 

Lahore objected to this treatment of a fellow-citizen, whose 
sole offence was that he had championed the cause of his 
countrymen, in regard to a matter which had occurred eight 
years before. 

Hence there was "unrest" in Lahore and the Punjab 
generally. There was not a tittle of evidence that any 
attack upon the Government was contemplated. It was 
clearly proved afterwards that it was not. But criticism 
could not be permitted. When only 200,000 Europeans 
and Eurasians, all told, occupy and dominate a country of 
315,000,000 inhabitants, they find it very difficult to admit 
that any of them can do anything wrong. It is dangerous 
not to be always in the right, when the disproportion of 
numbers is so stupendous. The Government is, and must 
be, perfect. If Indians object to its perfection, so much the 
worse for them. The Punjabis objected. They objected 
for good reasons, as was afterwards proved. 

For, all the time, the land revenue in the Lahore dis- 
trict was being raised and raised to such an extent that it 
actually amounted to 65 per cent, of the profits of the 
holdings! The "unrest" in Bengal, though no doubt in- 
tensified by general causes, became overt and serious in 
more ways than one, as the result of ruffled sentiment — the 
disruption of the old native Province of Bengal with its 
70,000,000 inhabitants. In the Punjab it was the direct 
effect of terrible economic injustice. Solemn official prom- 
ises made to the cultivators in regard to taxation were de- 
liberately broken in a manner absolutely ruinous to the 
ryots. 

Excessive charges were made for all irrigation water 
supplied by the Government, in order that the capital sunk 
in the official enterprise might show a profit. The poor folk 
were prohibited from using water from their own wells, so 
that th.f'y should be driven to buy Government water! 
Many other minor grievances were deeply resented. No 



The Growing Unrest 237 

attention whatever was paid to the complaints of the ryots 
or of their leaders. These latter were men of the very 
highest character, who were deeply respected throughout 
this region. What followed? The leaders were arrested 
and harshly dealt with. The principal agitator, Mr. Lajpat 
Rai, who had spent a considerable fortune on purely philan- 
thropic work, was, after the manner of the Bengal "sus- 
pects," arrested and transported without any accusation 
whatever having been formulated against him, and there- 
fore, of course, without having been brought to trial. 

Lord Morley, who was then Secretary of State for 
India, and a member of the House of Commons, actually 
went so far as to suggest in the House that if this act of 
gross injustice had not been committed, all the Sikh regi- 
ments — the sons of the heroes of 1857 on the English side 
— would have risen in the night against the English Govern- 
ment. The truth is that the whole official class was in a. 
state of panic. Moreover, its members knew very well that 
the ryots and their spokesmen were in the right, and Lord 
Morley was as fully convinced upon that point as were his 
subordinates in India. 

So serious did the matter become, in consequence of dis- 
cussion in the House of Commons and my own agitation 
throughout Great Britain, that the Central Government in 
India was compelled by public opinion in England and 
India to intervene. Lord Morley and the Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of the Punjab, with his local Council, were thrown 
overboard, and a fair trial of the incriminated persons, who 
had been transported without accusation, was ordered. It 
was then proved, in open court, that Lajpat Rai and his 
friends had been most unjustly handled in every way. The 
local authorities were overruled on every single point at 
issue. Mr. Lajpat Rai was at once, and naturally enough, 
regarded as a popular hero. For the facts having been 
shown to be precisely what he and his friends had stated, 



238 The Awakening of Asia 

the Central Government could not, for very shame, avoid 
carrying out its original agreement with the ryots of the 
Punjab not to raise their taxation, and the ruin of an en- 
tire district was thus averted. Of the harm done to Eng- 
lish rule and credit by all this unscrupulous oppression, lead- 
ing up to inevitable surrender, it is needless to speak. 

But this did not end the mischief by any means. The 
cultivators and their leaders had been guilty of the un- 
pardonable crime of showing up in public the injustice and 
oppression of those who could do no wrong. Mr. Lajpat 
Rai in particular was a man of such high standing, and so 
moderate in his claims and aspirations for his suffering 
fellow-countrymen, that he could not be allowed to escape 
unharassed for the good service he had rendered to his 
people. That is the worst of any bureaucracy. It is essen- 
tially revengeful, and the duty of paying out anyone who 
has, on any issue, got the better of its officials, is handed on 
from generation to generation of successive holders of 
posts in the Government service. This is to be observed in 
every country, even where the rulers and the ruled are of 
the same race. But the "spirit of the bureau" is much more 
stringently upheld in a country where the bureaucrats are 
all foreigners, quite unaccustomed to having their decisions 
challenged, still less upset. So Mr. Lajpat Rai was ruined 
in his profession, continually interfered with personally 
by the police, and at last hounded out of the country. He 
took refuge in the United States, where he has been ac- 
cused of being a German agent — a charge which he has 
emphatically denied. 

Unfortunately, far grosser things have been and are 
being done. The native police under the British Govern- 
ment depend for their promotion and payment upon the 
number of convictions they obtain in proportion to the 
number of offences reported. It has been proved that they 
do not stick at trifles in order to secure sufficient evidence 



The Growing Unrest 239 

to convict. That torture is systematically used has been 
long suspected. It was proved, in the Gulab Baru case, 
judicially and publicly, that the woman had been horribly 
tortured. Exposure of other frightful cases was threat- 
ened. The District Magistrate then stopped all further 
criticism ! 

But the truth leaks out by degrees, and the people know 
quite well what is going on. The treatment of political 
prisoners, often imprisoned without accusation, is getting 
worse rather than better. Not only, as already said, are 
they herded with the worst criminals, but their food, their 
sanitary conditions, their solitary confinement, their cloth- 
ing, are all deplorably bad. The sufferings of political 
prisoners and political convicts, it is averred by Indians who 
are by no means intransigent opponents of British rule, are 
acting as powerful incentives to future action, and there is 
little chance of the movement dying out for want of fresh 
recruits, or from fear. 

The most ruthless repression is failing to repress. In 
the Punjab, between fifty and sixty young men were sen- 
tenced to death within seven months, and upwards of one 
hundred have been transported for life or imprisoned for 
long periods. Indians firmly believe that many of those 
who had been transported, or executed, were quite inno- 
cent. In a case of alleged political conspiracy, at Lahore, 
several of those who were hanged had never been proved 
guilty of any murderous offence. They were executed on 
the strength of what it was believed they might have con- 
templated doing! One of the most moderate and widely- 
circulated of the Indian newspapers commented bitterly on 
this travesty of justice, and compared it most unfavourably 
with martial law in Ireland, bad as this latter may be. The 
situation in the Punjab is unquestionably very sefious 
indeed. 

Here is a plain statement by an educated Indian, who is 



240 The Awakening of Asia 

no extremist, on the existing state of things: "India has 
entered on a new phase. Her sons in thousands have be- 
gun to feel that it is worth while to die in the cause of 
freedom. ... It is extremely painful to see young men of 
great promise, high education, of lofty motives, of noble 
mien, and some of them of the noblest families in the land, 
throwing away their lives for the merest chance of awaken- 
ing the country to a sense of shame. It would be a slight 
to their intelligence to suppose that they entertain any hope 
of immediate success. Success is not what they aspire 
after. They die in order to show their countrymen the 
path to liberation. They die because, in their judgment, 
there is no other way now, under the regime of Press and 
Seditious Meetings Acts, to preach patriotism and to ex- 
hort people to love their country. Once a country enters 
upon that phase, the task of an alien Government becomes 
impossible. It may linger on for a number of years, but 
its fate is sealed." 

In the Punjab, therefore, as in Bengal, resistance has 
begun. It began years before the Great War, with its ter- 
rible legal crimes under the Defence of the Realm Act: it 
goes on and will go on, now that the war has come to an 
end. 

All through British territory, in fact, discontent is grow- 
ing, and the moderate Indian school who' organised and for 
a long time dominated the Indian National Congress, which 
has done good work for thirty years, are rapidly losing the 
leadership. This is deplorable from the English point of 
view : inevitable from the Indian. What is true in relation 
to the Sikh and the Bengali likewise applies to the Mahratta 
country; though up to the present time the change from 
apathy to desperation has not taken open shape in acts of 
irresponsible violence. But one incident alone serves to 
show the increasing disaffection and anger with English 
high-handedness. 



The Growing Unrest 241 

Mr. Bal Gungunder Tilak, the leader of the Mahratta 
movement, is a man of high standing, great ability and 
much literary power. In an article on general Indian ques- 
tions he dealt at length with the history of his country and 
race, and referred in eulogistic terms to the career of 
Sivaji, the famous leader who came to the front in the 
great Mahratta rebellion against the Mongol dynasty. He 
spoke with enthusiasm of this national hero, and said that 
patriotism could never die down while such events in Indian 
history were remembered. The Bombay Government 
thought proper to consider this article as an incitement to 
revolt. Mr. Bal Gungunder Tilak was arrested and tried 
for sedition. The proceedings were conducted in English. 
The prisoner's counsel contended that the article, as sub- 
mitted to the Court, was wrongly translated, and bore no 
such interpretation as the Government prosecutor put upon 
it. That argument was overruled. Mr. Tilak's condemna- 
tion was, in fact, a foregone conclusion, and he was con- 
demned to a long term of imprisonment. 

Thereupon, the Municipal Council of Bombay, entirely 
composed of wealthy Indians, of the class which most 
sympathises with the British Government, closed the public 
markets and kept them closed for eight successive days. 
This was, in its way, as significant a protest against English 
"justice" as the extraordinary demonstration at the crema- 
tion of the anarchist bomb-thrower in Calcutta. It showed 
that, in the one capital city as in the other, the discontent 
was not by any means confined to excited youths or needy 
striplings, as official apologists tried to make out. The 
whole of Bombay held but one opinion on the case. Bal 
Gungunder Tilak was, in the mind of the entire city, a 
victim of English injustice. 

An appeal was made to the Judicial Committee of the 
Privy Council. Mr. Khaparde, the barrister who conducted 
Mr. Tilak's case, was tracked in England as if he himself 



242 The Awakening of Asia 

were a suspected criminal engaged in treasonable practices. 
When he called to see me in London there was one detec- 
tive at the door of my house and another tramping up and 
down on the other side of the street. There was no hope, 
from the first, of the appeal succeeding. Policy outweighed 
law and justice. So Mr. Tilak served his term of im- 
prisonment, to the still further exasperation of the entire 
Bombay Presidency and all the Mahrattas. But his release 
gave me an opportunity for judging how much reliance is 
to be placed upon the loyalty and lip-service of Indians who 
visit England in order to qualify themselves for service or 
practise in India, and are to a large extent dependent upon 
the Government for success or failure in their vocations. 

Very significant was the behaviour of the crowded audi- 
ence of Indians at the large Caxton Hall on the occasion 
of the last of three important addresses delivered there 
by Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal. Indians of all sections were 
present. Mr. Pal dealt with India from the religious stand- 
point : he had spoken on the economic and political aspects 
of the problem before. This whole lecture was an appeal 
to the patriotic sentiments of Indians on religious grounds : 
India their mother country, India their home, India the 
land sacred to their forbears in the past, to themselves in 
the present, to their children's children in the future. The 
Mohammedans who were in the Hall joined in the ex- 
traordinary demonstration which wound up the address. 
Why not ? They are of the same race as the Hindoos, and 
the ideal of India once more mistress of herself appealed 
to them as well as to the others. I was in the chair myself, 
and I could see clearly what took place. I understood then 
more than ever before how for some time past nearly every 
Hindoo shrine and many a Mohammedan mosque have be- 
come virtually centres of anti-British propaganda. 

The economic teaching of the late Mr. Dadabhai 
Naoroji and his friends greatly influences the educated 



The Growing Unrest 243 

classes who are not directly interested in maintaining Brit- 
ish rule. The political agitation fostered by the National 
Indian Congress and by those who demand a share in the 
bureaucracy under British control affects the Europeanised 
Indians and those who believe it possible to achieve free- 
dom under a coming and going foreign rule. But a re- 
ligious propaganda touches all classes and covers a far 
wider ground. The English system develops agents every- 
where for this most dangerous form of patriotic agitation. 
It cannot be traced and it cannot be suppressed. 

The idea of the Government appears to be that the prac- 
tically universal unrest, the general ferment In India which 
English administrators themselves now admit to exist, is 
due, in great degree, to German action and the expenditure 
of German money. There is no one more bitterly opposed 
to German ambitions and methods than the present writer. 
No one did more, for over twenty years before the war, to 
warn Englishmen of the great dangers which Teutonic am- 
bitions, supported by ceaseless persistence and wonderful 
efficiency, must involve. I have been most active in opposing 
Germany throughout the war. Germany's preparations for 
war during the long period of peace were as thorough as 
her organisation of industrial competition supported by 
the State. And this industrial competition itself was a 
form of war. Moreover, the Germans were as unscrupulous 
as they were capable. Their system of spying and bribery 
could scarcely be improved. Wherever spies and agents in 
high places were useful, there they were to be found: in 
England, In France, in Russia, in America, in Italy, in 
Japan, in China, in English Colonies and Dependencies — 
all over the world, in short. Wherever bribery could pro- 
duce satisfactory results, there bribery was resorted to, on 
a scale quite unprecedented in history. Millions sterling 
were spent where formerly the richest countries paid away 
only thousands. There can be no doubt about this. 



244 The Awakening of Asia 

But German influence In Hindustan was never in the 
least formidable. No, the unrest is not due to German 
money but to British misrule. 

Unfortunately, however, advantage has been taken of 
the natural feeling against Germany to work the Defence 
of the Realm Act in such wise that in Bengal and the Pun- 
jab no man's liberty or even life is safe from the suborned 
machinations of poHce perjurers. There is, in fact, an 
underground panic all through English officialdom in India, 
and if the few who are keeping their heads venture to 
remonstrate, or even to declare that these methods of Tsarist 
terrorism and Jedburgh justice are not only immoral but 
dangerous, they are taunted with being in favour of Ger- 
many and German policy. To such a policy there can be 
but one end. 

When all this is put plainly and fearlessly. In the Interest 
not only of the Indians but of the English people at home 
and the English officials in India, the en^tire capitalist 
Press and nearly the whole of the House of Commons and 
the House of Lords, point to the wonderful public works 
which the English have built in India and to the British 
peace (already dealt with) which they have maintained. It 
would be easy to show that the railways which have been 
built out of a portion of the wealth drained by England out 
of India, and lent back to the Anglo-Indian Government at 
interest, are constructed mainly for strategical reasons, 
and rather serve to swell the drain of produce than to In- 
crease agricultural wealth. Even the amelioration of actual 
famine which is claimed for them is only secured by re- 
ducing the general average standard of nourishment 
throughout the country. Irrigation works, properly en- 
gineered and used not merely to gain extra revenue for 
the Government but to benefit the cultivators, are more 
directly beneficial. But even then matters have been al- 
lowed to go so far with the economic depression of the 



Jhe Growing Unrest 24S 

cultivators themselves that it is more than doubtful whether 
the class above them will not be chiefly the gainers, even 
where the irrigation is successful. There is no evidence to 
contradict the unhappy truth that the mass of the Indian 
people are getting poorer and poorer under English rule. 

Meanwhile, from one end of India to another the cry 
for self-government is being raised by the most moderate 
of the Indians. Congress Committees formulate scheme 
after scheme, and these programmes have a fundamental 
similarity : one and all demand that the Indian people shall 
control Indian administration, whether under English heg- 
emony or otherwise, and shall control it not on English but 
on Indian lines. The following summary of the situation 
as put on record by a thoroughly trustworthy Indian is 
worth careful study, for it shows clearly the stage which 
the development has now reached. It is far better that the 
truth should be known than that all the real facts should 
be suppressed until the catastrophe comes. 

*'The Indian politicians may roughly be divided into 
three classes : 

"(a) The extremists, who base their propaganda on 
fundamental grounds. They do- not believe that the Brit- 
ish can or ever will grant them freedom of any appreciative 
kind or any self-government worth the name, voluntarily. 
They are therefore opposed to making petitions and send- 
ing memorials. Some of them want absolute 'Swaraj'; 
some qualified 'Swaraj' on Colonial lines, but every one of 
them believes that neither is possible except by active revolt 
or successful passive resistance. They feel that they are 
not in a position to organise either, for some time to come, 
but that in the meantime it is their duty tO' do as much 
as they can to embarrass the Government by following 
the tactics of guerrilla warfare and by conducting a ter- 
rorist campaign. They say they must keep the flag flying, 
no matter how heavy their losses. In their opinion it is 



246 The Awakening of Asia 

the only way to carry on their propaganda and make it 
effective for impressing the country and gaining fresh re- 
cruits to their cause. How far they are wise in their plans 
is another question. 

"(&) The Moderates of the Indian National Congress 
who want to conduct their agitation on constitutional lines 
within the limits of law are not in favour of embarrassing 
the Government. The men in power in their party can 
hardly be distinguished from the third party, who are 
loyalists out and out, and are opposed to all agitation, leav- 
ing everything to the good sense of the Government. 

"(c) The third class consists of those who are out and 
out loyalists and whom the present arrangement places in 
a position of advantage. Their number is by no' means 
very large, and with the increase of political crime in the 
country their demands for compensation and rewards for 
loyalty and services are bound to increase, which even a 
despotic Government will find it impossible to grant. So 
there is every possibility of large numbers of them throwing 
in their lot with the others. It may thus be fairly said 
that in the demand for substantial self-government the 
country is practically united, and any hesitation or refusal 
to concede is bound to tell very adversely on their loyalty." 

As a result of the growing discontent, the reality of 
which can no longer be disguised, the great services ren- 
dered by Indian troops in the war, and the extreme diffi- 
culty for Great Britain to pose as the champion of democ- 
racy and freedom while, as a nation, we were keeping in 
subjection a vast Empire of 315,000,000 inhabitants — as 
a result of these indisputable facts the British Government 
thought it necessary to show some evidence to the world 
of a disposition to mitigate the oppression of its rule in 
Asia. Hence a project of so-called Constitutional Reform 
which Mr. Montagu went out to India in order to put in 
shape, with the assistance and approval of the Viceroy, 



The Growing Unrest 247 

Lord Chelmsford, who knows as little about India as Mr. 
Montagu, the Secretary of State for by far our greatest 
Dependency, does himself. 

The outcome of this mission has been a closely-printed 
Official Report of some 300 pages on the whole subject. 
This Report comprises a survey of British Administration 
and a series of proposals for improvement. Two points 
are made very clear in the opening paragraphs. After 
claiming that Lord Minto and Lord Hardinge had advo- 
cated and introduced minor Constitutional changes which 
had no effect "because the end of the policy had never 
been clearly and authoritatively set forth" — a very frank 
admission — the Report proceeds: "All this time Indian 
politicians were exerting continuous pressure to increase 
the rate of progress. The voice of criticism was never 
silent, but its tone showed a gradual change with the pass- 
ing years; the purely negative attitude of opposition grad- 
ually passed into a more constructive policy. Criticism 
came to be combined with advocacy of progress, and with 
demands that became steadily more insistent for a form of 
government which would leave Indians free to rule India 
in a measure consistent with Indian ideas. The spirit of 
liberty was abroad and active." — Could anything be more 
pernicious? — "We can distinguish clearly the directions in 
which political activities were mainly bent." That is so: 
we can. Political activities beyond all question were and 
are directed towards obtaining for Indians the right to 
govern their own country in their own way. 

As an incident in this political movement, the people 
of India, represented by their leaders of all shades of 
opinion, objected to the stringent laws of repression which 
the British Government considered essential in order to 
preserve for Hindustan the untold blessings of foreign 
domination. "There was constant opposition to Govern- 
ment measures which were regarded as repression. . . . 



248 The Awakening of Asia 

In 1 9 10 the Press Act was passed . . . the act, though by 
no means the obstacle to liberty of discussion that it is 
often represented, had since become increasingly unpopu- 
lar. The Seditious Meetings Act of 191 1" — practically 
suppressing the right of public meeting where any oppo- 
sition to the Government was anticipated — "reproduced in 
a milder form a law which had been in force since the 
disturbed year 1907; but the new Act was a permanent 
one, while its predecessor was a temporary measure, and 
this point formed the chief ground of attack. 

"The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 191 3, followed 
on the attempt to assassinate Lord Hardinge in December, 
1912. It amended the Indian Law of Conspiracy by making 
it penal to conspire to commit an offence, even though the 
conspiracy was accompanied by no overt act in pursuance 
of its object" — opening wide the door to spies, agents of 
provocation and Indian Jonathan Wilds of every type. 
"Criticism of all such measures has generally taken the 
form of an appeal to the abstract ( !) principles of liberty 
and the inalienable rights of British citizens; objection is 
generally taken to the use of executive rather than of 
judicial sanction." 

This means that Indians resented and denounced the 
clauses of the Act which placed them at the mercy of 
police indictment and enabled the Government to imprison 
and deport them without trial and even without any formal 
accusation, . . . "The Government's estimate of the situa- 
tion is attacked as unduly pessimistic; the necessity for 
the measure is denied ; or it is urged that the political situa- 
tion will certainly improve, and therefore the measure 
should be only temporary. In particular, notwithstanding 
the services which the Criminal Investigation Department 
(the British "Third Section") has rendered to the cause 
of peace and tranquillity, and so to the Indian people, by 
exposing and combating the growth of revolutionary con- 



The Growing Unrest 249 

spiracles, there has been much criticism of its activities 
as being too widespread." The criticism, in spite of the 
desperate risks, run by the critics, has been very much more 
plain-spoken than that. Indians of the highest character, 
not themselves vehemently antagonistic to a British leader- 
ship of India, have declared openly that the Criminal In- 
vestigation Department of India is one of the worst forms 
of unrestricted delation and persecution that has ever been 
known. 

But the passages I have quoted show clearly, by the 
official acknowledgment of the British Government of 
India: First, that there is a great, increasing and deter- 
mined demand from India that the inhabitants of Hindu- 
stan shall in future control their own destinies, and that 
this demand is accompanied by the formulation of a con- 
structive policy essential to the attainment of that end. 
Secondly, that at the same time India, meaning thereby 
the public opinion of the people as recognised by the Brit- 
ish Government, was and is bitterly opposed, both before 
the war and during the war, to the very stringent measures 
enacted against all public agitation, in the Press or on the 
platform, against any combination having for its object the 
removal of British domination, and against the suppres- 
sion of the right of personal freedom and right of public 
trial before condemnation. 

Events are helping: "The spectacle of Indian troops 
going forth gladly to fight for justice and right, side by 
side with the British army, appealed intensely to India's 
imagination. It was a source of legitimate pride and de- 
light to her people that Indian regiments shoidd he deemed 
jit to face" — I am still quoting from the official report — 
"the most highly trained enemy in the world. The Indian 
Princes and the great landed proprietors responded splen- 
didly from the very beginning of the war to the calls made 
upon them." This attitude has continued throughout the 



250 The Awakening of Asia 

war. But criticisms of the defects of British rule have in- 
creased in number and acerbity. The demands already- 
spoken of are pressed more vigorously upon the Govern- 
ment. And this is not surprising; for the war itself has 
given India a new sense of self-esteem and has also created 
a general interest in public affairs far in advance of what 
existed before. What is still more important, the war is 
regarded as a struggle between liberty and despotism, for 
the freedom of the nations and for the right of all peoples 
to rule their own destinies. "Attention," so the Govern- 
ment declares, "is repeatedly called to the fact that in Eu- 
rope Britain is fighting on the side of liberty, and it is 
urged that Britain cannot deny to the people of India that 
for which she is herself fighting in Europe and in the fight 
for which she has been helped by India's blood and treas- 
ure." 

From all this also arises not only a definite demand 
for liberty and reorganisation on Indian lines from India 
herself, but the British Government itself admits that some- 
thing serious must be done, and this something serious is 
represented by Mr. Montagu's Report, from which the 
above quotations are made. Now, it is certain that the 
proposals made by the Government are in every respect 
so insufficient and so disappointing that they cannot fail to 
produce a very bad impression — are in fact at this moment 
producing a bad impression throughout India, There is 
no attempt whatever made to put Indians frankly and 
definitely in even partial control of British India. The Cen- 
tral Government is to be as autocratic as ever. All that is 
suggested is to associate more Indians with Englishmen in 
the work of administration and to give them slight advan- 
tages in other directions. This is worse than useless. It 
would take two hundred years, at any rate, to give India 
any genuine self-government under British leadership. 

Yet even these petty triflings with the grave situation 



The Growing Unrest 251 

before us are stigmatised as unpatriotic and revolutionary 
by the reactionary Press here at home. That Press, and 
Anglo-Indians generally, write as if India is not, and can 
never be, fit to control her own destinies. Now, if the i6o 
years of British rule had greatly increased the well-being 
of the people of Hindustan; if the 240,000,000 under our 
direct governance had been educated; if Indian arts and 
Indian culture had been encouraged and developed — even 
then it would be monstrous to assert, at a time when we 
are declaring for the right of self-determination for the 
peoples and freedom for all nations, that the 45,000,000 
persons in small islands, thousands of miles distant, have 
justice on their side when they maintain despotic author- 
ity over one-fifth of the entire human race. But, as we 
have done none of these things, the contentions of the ob- 
structionists become utterly monstrous. 

For, as already shown, there is no such hopeless pov- 
erty on earth as that which exists and continues under Brit- 
ish rule in India. So frightful is the impoverishment that 
the Government dare not publish official statistics on the 
subject. Such reliable figures as there are have been worked 
out by Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, Mr. William Digby, m3^self, 
and others. Even in this Report, the real trouble, namely, 
that one-half of the inhabitants in British territory live 
from birth to death on insufficient nourishment, is virtually 
concealed, though the truth is partially told. Thus : "The 
revenue and rent returns show how small the average agri- 
cultural holding is. According to one estimate, the number 
of landlords" — meaning peasant owners — "whose income 
derived from their proprietary holdings exceeds £20 a 
year in the United Provinces, is about 126,000 out of a 
population of 48,000,000." Just reflect quietly upon what 
it means to declare in serious official statistics that less than 
3 per 1,000 holders of land obtain from their holdings 
more than 8s. a week for themselves and their families! 



252 The Awakening of Asia 

Mr. William Digby's calculation of 12s. 6d, per year per 
head for agriculturists, as the average income of Indian 
ryots, has never yet been refuted. And, whatever the 
British Government in India or the Indian Office in Lon- 
don may aver, things are getting worse rather than better. 
The agriculturists who constitute more than 70 per cent, 
of the population — a still higher percentage if small in- 
dustries directly connected with agriculture are taken into 
account — are becoming steadily poorer and poorer. 

We are not enriching but depleting India, therefore, 
by our rule. 

Of our disgraceful neglect of education I have already 
spoken. No serious effort is being made to improve the 
position, even by restoring old Hindu and Moslem institu- 
tions. 

Ancient Indian arts and culture, so far from being 
fostered, are falling steadily into decay, as Sir George 
Birdwood pointed out regretfully forty years ago. The 
deterioration is going on still, and nothing of value is 
arising to replace this loss. 

And all the while Europeanisation proceeds only too 
persistently, and Europeanisation of a character which 
divorces the conquering race from the conquered more 
and more completely every year, every month, every week, 
every day. 

To this must be added the hideous economic drain which 
extracts from India year after year certainly not less than 
£30,000,000 sterling, without any commercial return, as 
the trade figures conclusively prove. 

The position of the ryots, or small indigent peasantry, 
in all the Provinces is made worse by our European sys- 
tem of laws, innumerable and unsuited to the country. On 
this the Report says in regard to the ryot: "A simple, 
cheap and certain system of law is one of his greatest 
needs. He greatly requires to be protected against the 



The Growing Unrest 253 

intricacies of courts" — our own courts! — "and the subtle- 
ties of law, and enabled to defend" (himself against) "the 
advantages enjoyed by long-pursed opponents. . . . One 
of his constant needs is protection against the exactions of 
petty official oppressors." These are our own officials. 

"What matters most of all to the ryot are his relations 
with his landlord." His "landlord" — the word itself is 
European, as is the thought behind it — that is, the British 
Government which taxes him and from whose salaried 
officials the Report itself declares he needs protection. 

In short, the official admissions in this Report itself 
justify all that I have said and written for more than forty 
years about the terrible injury done to the vast population 
of India by our domination. 

Indians are at one with enlightened Europeans in be- 
lieving that matters cannot be put right by well-intentioned 
European reforms such as those contained in the Montagu- 
Chelmsford proposals. It is much too late for such super- 
ficial treatment. The India of 1919 is a very different 
India, not only from the India of 1874, when I first began 
to write upon the subject, but from the India of 191 3. A 
new, determined, capable spirit of construction is abroad 
among the people and their representatives. Hindus and 
Mohammedans are acting solidly together. They are 
united as never before in history, since Mohammedanism 
first invaded Hindustan. All races and all creeds have 
awakened to the necessity for joint action in a common 
endeavour to obtain self-government and Indian admin- 
istration for India — under British guidance; but not under 
British domination. 

The Resolutions below, referring to the Montagu- 
Chelmsford Report, were passed at the Special Congress 
summoned at Bombay from August 29th to September 1st, 
1 918, with the full concurrence of the All-India Moslem 
League, which met in the same city at the same time. They 



254 The Awakening of Asia 

constitute an historic demand from the people of a great 
Empire that they should be peacefully granted the right 
in the main to manage their own affairs. This demand is 
the Magna Charta of one-fifth of the human race. 

Resolution I. — That this Congress tenders its most loyal 
homage to His Gracious Majesty the King-Emperor, and has 
learned with great satisfaction of the recent successes of the 
Allies in the War now raging, and sincerely prays for their 
early and decisive victory and the final vindication of the 
principles of Freedom, Justice and Self-determination. 

Resolution IL — That this Congress re-affirms the prin- 
ciples of reform contained in the Resolutions relating to Self- 
Government adopted in the Indian National Congress and 
the All-India Moslem League held at Lucknow in December, 
1916, and at Calcutta in December, 1917, and declares that 
nothing less than Self-Government within the Empire can 
satisfy the Indian people and, by enabling it to take its right- 
ful place as a free and Self-Governing Nation in the British 
Commonwealth, strengthen the connexion between Great Brit- 
ain and India. 

Resolution III. — That this Congress declares that the 
people of India are fit for responsible Government, and re- 
pudiates the assumption to the contrary contained in the Re- 
port on Indian Constitutional reforms. 

Resolution IV. — The Government of Tndia shall have un- 
divided administrative authority on matters directly concern- 
ing peace, tranquillity and defence of the country, subject to 
the following: — 

That the Statute to be passed by Parliament should include 
the Declaration of the Rights of the People of India as Brit- 
ish Citizens : — 

(a) That all Indian subjects of His Majesty and all the 
subjects naturalised or resident in India are equal before the 
law, and there shall be no penal or administrative law in force 
in this country, whether substantive or procedural, of a dis- 
criminative nature ; 



The Growing Unrest 255 

(b) that no Indian subject of His Majesty shall be liable 
to suffer in liberty, life, property, or in respect of free speech 
or writing, or of the right of association, except under sentence 
by an ordinary Court of Justice, and as a result of lawful and 
open trial; 

(c) that every Indian subject shall be entitled to bear arms, 
subject to the purchase of a licence, as in Great Britain, and 
that right shall not be taken away save by a sentence of an 
ordinary Court of Justice; 

(d) that the Press shall be free, and that no licence or 
security shall be demanded on the registration of a press or a 
newspaper ; 

(e) that corporal punishment shall not be inflicted on any 
Indian subject of His Majesty save under conditions applying 
equally to all other British subjects. 



MODIFICATIONS IN REFORM SCHEME 

Resolution V.— That this Congress appreciates the ear- 
nest attempt on the part of the Right Hon. The Secretary of 
State and His Excellency the Viceroy to inaugurate a system 
of Responsible Government in India, but while it recognises 
that some of the proposals constitute an advance on the pres- 
ent conditions in some directions, it is of opinion that the pro- 
posals as a whole are disappointing and unsatisfactory, and 
suggests the following modifications as absolutely necessary 
to constitute a substantial step towards Responsible Govern- 
ment: 

That this Congress entirely disagrees with the formula con- 
tained in the said Report that the Provinces are the domain in 
which the earlier steps should be taken towards the progressive 
realisation of Responsible Government, and that the authority 
of the Government of India in essential matters must remain 
indisputable pending experience of the effect of the changes 
proposed to be introduced in the Provinces ; and this Congress 
is of opinion that simultaneous advance is indispensable both 
in the Provinces and the Government of India. 



256 The Awakening of Asia 

The proportion of Mohammedans in the Legislatures as 
laid down in the Congress-League Scheme must be maintained. 



I. PARLIAMENT AND THE INDIA OFFICE 

1. The control of Parliament and the Secretary of State 
must only be modified as the responsibility of the Indian and 
Provincial Governments to the electorates is increased. No 
financial or administrative powers in regard to reserved sub- 
jects shall be transferred to the Provincial Governments until 
such time as they are made responsible regarding them to 
electorates, and until then the control of Parliament and the 
Secretary of State shall continue. 

2. The Council of India shall be abolished, and there shall 
be two permanent Under Secretaries to assist the Secretary 
of State for India, one of whom shall be an Indian. 

3. All charges in respect to the India Office establish- 
ment shall be placed on the British Estimates. 

4. The Committee to be appointed to examine and report 
on the present constitution of the Council of India shall con- 
tain an adequate Indian element. 

IT. THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA 
i. Privy Council 
There shall be no Privy Council. 

ii. Executive 

At least half the number of Executive Councillors (if there 
be more than one) in charge of reserved subjects shall be 
Indians. 

iii. Legislature 

I. The number of members of the Legislative Assembly 
shall be raised to 150, and the proportion of the elected mem- 
bers shall be four-fifths. 



The Growing Unrest 257 

2. The President and the Vice-President of the Legislative 
Assembly shall be elected by the Assembly. 

3. (a) There shall be no Council of State; but, if the 
Council of State is to be constituted, a system of reserved and 
transferred subjects, similar to that proposed for the Prov- 
inces, shall be adopted for the Central Government. At least 
half of its total strength shall consist of elected members, and 
procedure by certification shall be confined to the reserved sub- 
jects. 

(b) All legislation shall be by Bills introduced into the 
Legislative Assembly, provided that if, in the case of reserved 
subjects, the Legislative Assembly does not pass such measures 
as the Government may deem necessary, the Governor-General 
in Council may provide for the same by regulations, such 
regulations to be in force for one year, but not to be renewed 
unless 40 per cent, of the members of the Assembly present and 
voting are in favour of them. 

4. (a) The reserved subjects shall be Foreign Affairs {^ex- 
cepting relations with the Colonies and the Dominions), Army, 
Navy, and relations with Indian Ruling Princes; and, subject 
to the declarations contained in Resolution IV, matters directly 
affecting Public Peace, Tranquillity and the Defence of the 
country. All other subjects, including Customs, Tariff and 
Excise Duties, shall be transferred. 

(b) The allotments required for the reserved subjects shall 
be the first charge on the revenue. 

5. (a) Whenever the Legislative Assembly, or the Council 
of State, or the Legislative Council, is dissolved it shall be 
obligatory on the Governor-General, or the Governor, as the 
case may be, to order the necessary elections, and to re-sum- 
mon the body dissolved within a period of three months from 
the date of dissolution. 

(b) No dissolution of the Legislatures shall take place ex- 
cept by way of an appeal to the electorate, and the reason shall 
be stated in writing countersigned by the Ministers. 

(c) There shall be an obligation to convene meetings of 
the Council and Assembly at stated intervals, or on the requisi- 
tion of a certain proportion of members. 



258 The Awakening of Asia 

6. The procedure for the adoption of the Budget shall be 
on the lines laid down for the Provinces. 

7. The Legislative Assembly shall have power to make, or 
modify, its own rules of business and they shall not require 
the sanction of the Governor-General. 

8. A statutory guarantee shall he given that full responsi- 
ble Government shall he established in the whole of British 
India within a period not exceeding 15 years. 



III. THE PROVINCES 
i. Executive 

1. {a) There shall be no additional members of the Ex- 
ecutive Government without portfolios. 

{h) From the commencement of the reformed Councils, 
the relation of the Governor to the Ministers in regard to the 
transferred subjects shall be the same as that obtaining in the 
Self-Goveming Dominions. 

2. The status and salar)^ of the Ministers shall be the same 
as that of the members of the Executive Council. 

3. At least half the number of Executive Councillors in 
charge of reserved subjects (if there be more than one) shall 
be Indians. 

ii. Legislature 

1. While holding that the people are ripe for the introduc- 
tion of full Provincial Autonomy, the Congress is yet prepared, 
with a view to facilitating the passage of the Reforms, to leave 
the departments of Law, Police and Justice (prisons excepted) 
in the hands of the Executive Government in all Provinces for 
a period of six years. Executive and Judicial Departments 
must be separated at once. 

2. The proportion of elected members in the Legislative 
Council shall be four-fifths. 

3. The President and the Vice-President shall be elected 
by the Council. 

4. (a) That this Congress is strongly of opinion that it is 



The Growing Unrest 259 

essential for the welfare of the Indian people that the Indian 
Legislature shall have the same measure of fiscal autonomy 
which the Self-Governing Dominions of the Empire possess. 

(b) The Budget shall be under the control of the Legisla- 
ture, subject to the contribution to the Government of India, 
and to the allocation of a fixed sum for the reserved subjects ; 
and should fresh taxation be necessary it should be imposed 
by the Provincial Government as a whole for both transferred 
and reserved subjects. 

5. This Congress is emphatically of opinion that the status 
of Ajmere-Merwara and Delhi should be that of regulated 
Provinces, and that popular government and effective control 
in the affairs of the Local Government should be granted to 
their people. 

6. The proposal to institute a Grand Committee shall be 
dropped. The Provincial Legislative Council shall legislate 
in respect of all matters within the jurisdiction of Provincial 
Government, including Law, Justice and Police, but where the 
Government is not satisfied with the decision of the Legisla- 
tive Council in respect of matters relating to Law, Justice and 
Police, it shall be open to the Government to refer the matter 
to the Government of India. The Government of India may 
refer the matter to the Indian Legislature, and the ordinary 
procedure shall follow. But if Grand Committees are insti- 
tuted, this Congress is of opinion that not less than one-half 
of the strength should be elected by the Legislative Council. 

7. The Legislative Council shall have power to make or 
modify its own rules of business, and they shall not require the 
sanction of the Governor-General. 

8. There shall be an obligation to convene meetings of the 
Council at stated intervals, or on the requisition of a certain 
proportion of members. 

9. Women, possessing the same qualifications as are laid 
down for men in any part of the Scheme, shall not be dis- 
qualified on account of sex. 



26o The Awakening of Asia 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Resolution VL — This Congress places on record its deep 
disappointment at the altogether inadequate response made by 
the Government to the demand for the grant of Commissions 
to Indians in the Army, and is of opinion that steps should be 
immediately taken so as to enable the grant to Indians at an 
early date of at least 25 per cent, of the Commissions in the 
Army, the proportion to be gradually increased. 

It is clear, therefore, from this important pronounce- 
ment that the minor alterations in our bureaucratic sys- 
tem, proposed by Mr, Montagu and Lord Chelmsford, 
leaving the Central Autocracy wholly untouched, will not 
satisfy even a small minority of the Indian people. And 
there is even stronger evidence to that effect. Not con- 
tent with unanimously electing Bal Gungunder Tilak to 
be President of the Indian National Congress, — a posi- 
tion he was unable to accept owing to his visit to Europe 
• — the delegates have called upon the British Government 
to secure for India representation at the Peace Conference, 
and have chosen the same Mr. Tilak as their representative. 
Can anything be more significant? Mr. Tilak is imprisoned 
for a term of years on account of his patriotism. All 
India protests. Mr. Tilak is released and is welcomed on 
his discharge as a popular hero. Mr. Tilak voyages to 
London and is selected as the representative of India at 
the close of this great war. 

Surely, all Englishmen and Englishwomen must admit 
that action of this kind, following close upon the promulga- 
tion of the Resolutions given above, cannot be dealt with 
as if the views of the vast population under our control in 
India were not worthy of serious consideration. 

India asks for general National Freedom. Great Brit- 
ain has waged the greatest war of all time in order to se- 



The Growing Unrest 261 

cure these advantages for people entirely outside her in- 
fluence. Can she deny similar rights to Hindustan? 

India demands that all British citizens should have equal 
rights. 

India calls for fiscal control, in order to have the power 
to stanch the ruinous drain of economic tribute to Great 
Britain. 

India protests against the permanent disarmament of 
her people. 

India declares that condemnation of arrested persons 
without trial is tyranny which ought at once to be abol- 
ished. 

India, in short, claims to be treated as a great and civil- 
ised power, and not as merely a field for selfish experiment 
and exploitation by Europeans. 

India is anxious that the new development and emanci- 
pation should be carried on under British guidance and 
peacefully. 

I have been a student of and writer upon Indian and 
Eastern affairs for the past forty-five years. So long ago 
as 1879-80, after the publication of my articles in the 
Nineteenth Century on India, Indian Administration and 
Finance, the Conservative Government of that day deter- 
mined to introduce far-reaching reforms in the direction 
of Home Rule for India and the extension of the policy 
introduced by Lord Salisbury and Lord Iddesleigh in 
Mysore in 1868, the restoration, that is, of India to Indian 
rule. The matter went so far that in 1879 my friend Mr. 
Edward Stanhope, then Under-Secretary of State for India, 
brought preliminary measures into the House of Commons 
introductory to a much larger scheme, forty years ago. 
The Government was changed, and the whole scheme was 
dropped. The Anglo-Indian bureaucracy, on active service 
and retired, was too strong. The important middle-class 
was in favour of "Imperialism," without considering or 



262 The Awakening of Asia 

understanding the mischief being wrought. Such reforms 
as have been attempted since that time have, unfortunately, 
very sHghtly, if at all, mitigated the harm done by our un- 
sympathetic supremacy. Until lately any such genuine 
change of front as Indians cry for seemed hopeless with- 
out a desperate struggle in India itself. 

Now, however, that the mass of the British wage-earn- 
ing population is gaining its rightful influence on public 
affairs, and that the real truth about India is beginning to 
be appreciated, in spite of all interested misrepresentation, 
there is some prospect of a radical transformation being 
brought about. There is no greater service than this which 
the British people can render to humanity. Indian reform- 
ers, from Mr. Bal Gungunder Tilak, through all the grades 
of Hindu and Moslem political thought, down to the poor 
ryot, are imbued with the conviction that now their oppor- 
tunity has come to obtain better conditions for themselves. 
Personal interest combines with patriotic and religious 
idealism to create a great combined force of the Indian 
peoples. 

By maintaining our existing European Government, 
regardless of the feelings and opinions of the Indians, we 
set the moral sentiment of the whole civiHsed world against 
us. All over the United States, for example, the sober and 
constitutional writings of such men as Professor Subindra 
Bose and Lajpat Rai are being widely read and their views 
accepted. The same is true of European countries and 
Japan. The Germans, who have learnt to their ruin what 
it costs to outrage the consensus of civilised opinion, have 
taken care to publish far and wide Indian and British criti- 
cisms on the present state of affairs in India. Moreover, 
if the Entente Powers remonstrate seriously with Japan, 
in reference to her persistent endeavours to absorb a large 
portion of China, the answer to such protests is only too 
complete: "What is Great Britain doing with regard to 



The Growing Unrest 263 

the hundreds of millions of inhabitants under her yoke in 
India ? Why has she asked us to pledge ourselves to main- 
tain by force her domination in that great Empire? When 
those questions are honestly dealt with it will be time for 
us, perhaps, to discuss further our policy of peaceful pene- 
tration in the Provinces of China." Thus, even in the do- 
main of foreign affairs, our present attitude puts us wholly 
in the wrong. 

For these reasons I still hope that steps will be taken 
immediately to accept the constitutional programme of 
emancipation for India set forth by the acknowledged rep- 
resentatives of the Indian peoples. 

Those views and anticipations may not be realised. 
When great movements commence they rarely fulfil the 
predictions of those who have foreseen them as inevitable. 
But British politicians are beginning to be convinced of 
the weakness of the English hold upon India, and they 
realise that a serious upheaval is not unlikely. This is con- 
clusively proved by the terms of the three important 
Treaties with Japan, spoken of above, first entered upon 
by the Convention of 1902 under a Tory Government in 
England, and afterwards confirmed by the two Treaties of 
1905 and 191 1. By these instruments Great Britain guar- 
antees to the whole of the Japanese Empire her assistance 
in safeguarding Japanese possessions. Japan on her side 
guarantees to safeguard only the English possession of 
Hindustan. 

Could a more compromising and even dangerous ar- 
rangement have been arrived at? I think not. England 
virtually admits that her Asiatic Empire may be imperilled, 
and relies upon the rising Asiatic Power, Japan, to retain 
it for her. Yet this pusillanimous admission of the insuffi- 
ciency of the Empire to keep India permanently under con- 
trol was received with loud cheers by the House of Lords 
when its terms were first communicated to the country in 



264 The Awakening of Asia 

1902, What the real view of the matter is in India itself, 
as well as in Japan and China, the world will learn soon 
enough. The cry of "Asia for the Asiatics" never received 
a clearer exposition of its necessity than when these treaties 
were ratified with the assent of all English parties. Wak- 
ing India is to be lulled to sleep by the soothing influence 
of England's Asiatic Ally, Japan — whose confessed ambi- 
tion it is to lead the Far East against that European in- 
fluence which she considers fatal to Asia! When she is 
called upon to help white men against her Asiatic brethren, 
what is Japan likely to do? 

The sooner the true situation is understood and its 
difficulties faced, the better for civilisation. It is too late 
to temporise: it is ruinous to drift. India and Japan, in 
different manners, and to a very different degree, are both 
beginning to react consciously against the domination of 
the West over the East, Hindustan, with its 315,000,000 
of inhabitants, is awake, and the fatal policy of Great 
Britain herself may easily drive these Aryans into the 
arms of their historic enemies, the Mongol race. 



CONCLUSION 

The survey which I have attempted in the foregoing pages 
has been made, primarily, with the hope and intention that 
it may induce the growing democracies of the EngHsh- 
speaking peoples to look more closely than hitherto into 
their relations with the Asiatic races. During the greater 
part of the nineteenth century the peoples of European 
race claimed to have a manifest superiority over Asiatics. 
But history demonstrates conclusively that such superiority 
does not exist. Nor was this the attitude of European 
travellers and adventurers in the East in the first instance. 
Most of these men, persons of ability, knowledge and re- 
pute in their own countries, were amazed at the civilisa- 
tion, wealth and magnificence of the Courts they visited 
and the general well-being of the populations under native 
rule, which, also, they admired. For many a long day 
deference rather than arrogance was the tone of the white 
men towards the Emperors and Kings, Maharajahs and 
Nawabs, Viceroys and Mandarins whom they encountered. 
The high qualities and great attainments of these poten- 
tates and their ministers then obtained due consideration. 
The arts and sciences, philosophy and jurisprudence of 
these remote societies were appreciated and respected. The 
infinite obligations of the West to the East were still recog- 
nised : the capacity of Asia, in war as in peace, was not for- 
gotten. 

Then the Eastern world lay dormant for a time. Eu- 
rope advanced rapidly in material development and scien- 
tific knowledge and acquirement, while Asia ceased to 
discover, or invent, or even to adopt and absorb. Improved 

265 



266 The Awakening of Asia 

weapons; and the new great machine industry gave Euro- 
peans the temporary advantage in war and in trade. But 
how long will this last? What security have we of the 
permanence of this superficial predominance? 

It is well to recall that, within comparatively recent 
times, wave after wave of conquering Asiatic armies broke 
in upon Europe; and barbarian as most of these warlike 
hordes were, great generals, great organisers, great ad- 
ministrators rose up from among them, both in West and 
East, whose equals could not be found in the Europe of 
their day. The Arabs of Spain, the various Moslem rulers 
of Baghdad, Egypt and Adrianople left, directly or indi- 
rectly, their mark on the civilisation of the West. The Mon- 
gols of Delhi, the Bahmany dynasty of the Deccan, Kublai 
Khan in China, and the rulers of the Khanates of Central 
Asia showed splendid capacity, in arts as in arms. These 
men and others built up Empires which the white races 
saw and heard of dimly from afar. But whether as dis- 
tant rulers or as terribly near invaders, these Asians were 
very formidable foes, and in the changing course of time 
we may yet have good cause to fear Asians again. 

We now know to our cost what a war to the death be- 
tween nations and races, provided with equal means of 
destruction, really is. In the long run, should no excep- 
tional military genius manifest himself, nor any incalcula- 
ble spirit animate one of the combatants, the number of 
the trained soldiers on either side determines who shall be 
the victor. In numbers the East has an enormous advan- 
tage over the West. And there is no reason why a really 
great admiral, or general, should not appear in the coun- 
tries which border upon the Pacific Ocean, as well as in 
those whose outlet is the Atlantic. 

While all the Powers of Europe were engaged in a 
desperate war of resistance to Teutonic aggression, and 
we were looking on, practically helpless, at the internecine 



Conclusion 267 

butchery of the white race, there has been a steady revival 
among the vast populations which inhabit the territories 
extending from the Persian Gulf to the Sooloo Sea, and 
from the Amoor River to the Straits of Singapore. Never- 
theless, we still talk with confidence of capturing more of 
Asiatic trade and influencing for all time Asiatic develop- 
ment. 

Not long ago, European nations were calmly discussing 
and deciding among themselves how much more of sleepy 
Asia they should appropriate, for the benefit, no doubt, 
of the peoples brought under this foreign rule. But now 
our sense of conscious superiority is being shaken, and 
when we find the inscrutable Asiatic learning to meet us 
successfully with our own weapons, we draw back a little. 
We even begin to see that he may have good grounds for 
regarding his white rivals as the uncultured and discour- 
teous barbarians that, in many respects, we really are. 

Compared with the madness of Europe, also, the com- 
parative quietude of Asia has been sanity itself. Yet this 
may not endure. With all the facts before us, and with 
prejudice thrown aside, we are still unable to lay bare the 
causes of the gigantic Asian movements of the past. They 
were certainly not all economic in their origin, unless we 
stretch the boundaries of theory so far as to include the 
massacre of whole populations and the destruction of their 
wealth within the limits of the invader's desire for material 
gain. And, whether these movements arose from material 
or emotional causes, they have been before, and they may 
occur again. Forecast here is impossible. A new Mo- 
hammed is quite as likely to make his appearance as a new 
Buddha, a reborn Confucius, or a modern Christ. 

Asia owes to Europe little or nothing. At most, white 
men are teaching her improved methods of slaughter, and 
providing her with more perfect appliances for creating 
and distributing increased wealth for the few. As against 



268 The Awakening of Asia 

these very doubtful services, the record of the white man's 
atrocities is ugly indeed. Trade has been opened up with 
unwilling peoples, in almost every instance, by bloodshed 
or threat of bloodshed. Thenceforward, it was spread by 
all the horrors of war and the permanent evils of unjust 
annexation. The traffic itself was often by no means ad- 
vantageous to the country upon which it was thrust. Where 
the poisoning of millions of industrious and simple Chinese 
folk was profitable to the foreign traders and merchants, 
there poison was forced upon these peaceful people at the 
cannon's mouth. In cases where emigration for the coolies 
meant certain death within a short period for the unfortu- 
nates who were kidnapped and shipped off, all the remon- 
strances of the Government of China, whose subjects were 
thus outraged, failed to obtain redress. 

Japan herself, whose leadership of Asia, afield and 
afloat, may yet, unless we are very careful, teach white 
men a lesson all over the world, was driven into close 
contact with Europe and America against her will, first, 
by Commodore Perry's dexterous diplomacy, supported by 
the power of the United States, and then by the much less 
justifiable measures of other white nations. Japan was, 
in fact, compelled to enter upon foreign commerce with 
Europeans by the famihar process of bombardment and 
butchery, which their immensely superior weapons of of- 
fence rendered merely a passing amusement for the civil- 
ised aggressors. That was but yesterday. It would be a 
desperately dangerous experiment to repeat to-day. Well 
for us if it is forgotten to-morrow. Asia raided and 
scourged Europe for more than a thousand years. Now 
for five hundred years the counter-attack of Europe upon 
Asia has been going steadily on, and it may be that the 
land of long memories will cherish some desire to avenge 
this period of wrong and rapine in turn. The seed of hatred 
has already been but too well sown. 



Conclusion 269 

The continent which has long regarded itself as the 
home of the progressive peoples and the hope of the entire 
planet is beginning to forfeit its assumed supremacy. The 
warlike and industrial potentialities of the near future are 
passing slowly but surely to the Far East. However the 
recent stupendous war may finally end, the whole of edu- 
cated Asia can read its meaning written across the map of 
the world. If all those portions of the globe which are 
inhabited or dominated by the white races are seriously 
taking account at the present moment of their strength, 
their population, and their possibilities for the increase of 
their wealth on a larger scale than ever before, we may 
be sure the ablest men in Asia are not blind to what can be 
achieved in their own countries in peace and in war. It 
is true that the differences between the Asiatic peoples are 
as acute as any which exist in Europe. But against the 
white man they are practically all at one. 

Yet the white man still holds control over nearly half 
of Asia and its vast population. Asia comprises, including 
its islands, little less than 1,000,000,000 of the human race. 
England, France, Russia, Holland and the United States 
are all deeply concerned in the future of this mass of peo- 
ple, in view of the scope of territory and population they 
control. All will be greatly affected by the general political, 
economic and social movement of Japan, China and India. 
In a word, the position of Great Britain foremost, and of 
the other Powers in their degree, is now being steadily 
undermined. The determined effort to secure Asia for 
the Asiatics, once begun as earnestly in action as it is now 
being seriously considered in thought, might spread with 
a rapidity which would paralyse all attempts at reconquest, 
if, indeed, such attempts could ever be effectively made. The 
West deprived of British India, the Asiatic Provinces of 
Russia, French Tonquin and Cochin China, Dutch Java, 
Sumatra and the Celebes, the Philippines under the United 



270 The Awakening of Asia 

States, would be a very different Europe from that to which 
we have been accustomed. 

That is a possibiHty of which the West, with forces 
now weakened and depleted to a wholly unprecedented ex- 
tent, must soon take account. Unconsciously, but none the 
less certainly, it is making way. Where fifty, or even 
twenty years ago, the continuous expansion of Western 
domination over the East was taken for granted, now an 
uneasy but not yet openly admitted feeling is growing that 
the tide has turned, and that ere long the area of European 
influence in the East will be considerably reduced. The 
partition of China among the "Great Powers" is not to-day 
within the sphere of practical poHtics, and Japan pursues 
her policy in respect to that magnificent Empire with little 
regard to the susceptibilities of the white man and his 
burden. Whether the appeal of China herself to the White 
Powers, that they should aid her to resist the unwarranted 
demands of Japan, will obtain a favourable reception re- 
mains to be seen. But while "The League of Nations" is 
being generally discussed it is certain that, in the opinion 
of the Chinese, the national independence of China is seri- 
ously menaced if the much-cherished "Open Door" is being 
carefully, though silently, closed. 

All this is more remarkable since the Ottoman Turks, 
for centuries the advance guard of Asia in Europe, are at 
last being driven from their hereditary camping-ground. 
Even their mastery over Asia Minor, irrespective of the 
baffled German programme of appropriation, is obviously 
threatened by Great Britain and France. What, under 
other circumstances, would undoubtedly be considered addi- 
tional evidence of the growing predominance of Europe, 
seems to-day scarcely a makeweight against the probable 
insecurity of the white race in the Far East. The practical 
occupation of Persia now proceeding attracts little atten- 
tion when the permanence of British rule in India is ques- 



Conclusion 271 

tioned, not so much from without as from within. Russia 
is incapable of any warHke policy and will probably be so 
for a long time to come. The French, too, will not long be 
able to retain undisputed possession of the territories they 
have seized from China. The difficulties to be faced at 
home, with a decreasing population, increasing financial 
burdens and the probable inability of Russia to pay interest 
on her enormous debt, so largely in French hands, will be 
such that withdrawal from her Far Eastern possessions can 
scarcely fail to be a matter of imperative necessity. The 
retention of the Dutch Archipelago, were Holland's owner- 
ship ever directly challenged, would be impossible. Cer- 
tainly, without a powerful European ally, or active support 
from unready China, America would have to strain all her 
great wealth, extraordinary energy and enormous industrial 
resources, in order to continue to hold what is really no 
use to her in the Philippines. 

Asia, in short, is already far from being the Asia which 
was fair game for adventurous European experiments. 
New conditions must be dealt with by a new policy. 

And who shall say that the frank abandonment of the 
fallacious polity of Imperialism will not greatly benefit the 
countries which boldly enter upon this honourable course? 
The possession of India has been a curse to England, alike 
in her domestic and foreign affairs. Democracy at home 
has greatly suffered by the maintenance of despotism 
abroad. The two can never be harmonised, nor kept simul- 
taneously in being, without danger to the popular cause. 
The fear of what might happen to the English in India 
has frequently perverted the action of British policy. In 
economics also the tribute from Hindustan, which must be 
paid, no matter at what price, in saleable commodities, has 
done mischief to the producers of Great Britain as to the 
ryots of India, 

So with France and her Asiatic possessions. What 



272 The Awakening of Asia 

have the French peasants and bourgeoisie to gain, from 
any point of view, by retaining provinces that must be 
defended at the cost of their blood and treasure, and must 
introduce a dangerous miHtary sentiment into the man- 
agement of their affairs ? 

Happily the same views as to the madness of modern 
warfare which are now being forced upon the rest of 
the world are also making way with Asiatic statesmen. 
They too see that friendly co-operation for common ad- 
vantage might be far more advantageous to all than rivalry 
for power or competition for gain. Freedom of nationali- 
ties, equahty of rights, respect for treaties and conventions, 
international arrangements for securing permanent peace 
are as important for Asia as for any other continent. But 
the responsibility for adopting them, should the Japanese 
democratic party prevail, and India and China press their 
demands without violence, rests entirely with Europe. The 
Asiatic nations are so far threatening no legitimate Euro- 
pean interest : they ask only that the principles for which 
the Allies justly claim they fought Germany should be ap- 
plied in the most populous regions of the world. 

But it is useless to disguise from ourselves that this 
concession would involve of itself a complete revolution in 
the East. For such policy honestly applied would mean : 

1. The emancipation of India from foreign rule by 
peaceful agreements with its numerous peoples. 

2. The cessation of attempts to force foreign capitalism 
and foreign trade upon Asiatic countries. 

3. The recognition that Japanese and Chinese are en- 
titled, in countries and colonies inhabited or controlled by 
Europeans, to rights equal with those of Europeans in 
China and Japan. 

4. The granting of similar rights to Indians on the same 
basis. 



Conclusion 273 

5. The general acceptance by Europeans of the prin- 
ciple of "Asia for the Asiatics" as a rightful claim. 

But no student and no statesman would contend that 
such a wide policy of justice can be suddenly realised. Yet, 
if, in the near future, public opinion in Europe and America 
were to endorse such a programme, and the nations inter- 
ested would take the first steps towards its realisation, much 
of the antagonism which is already manifesting itself in 
Asia might be removed. Past injuries cannot now be rem- 
edied. The most to hope for is that, in the Asiatic mind, 
they may be held to balance those Eastern attacks upon the 
West which belong to a past more remote. 

We are turning over a new page in the history of the 
human race. What will be written upon it depends on the 
men and women of the rising generation. If, in interna- 
tional relations, the old race and colour prejudices are 
maintained, if trade and commerce, interest and profit 
continue to be the principal objects of our statesmanship, 
then troubles may easily ensue beside which even the 
World War may take second place. On the other hand, 
should wider views and nobler aspirations animate both 
branches of civilised mankind, then indeed a magnificent 
vista of common achievement will open out before our im- 
mediate descendants. The genius of the East and the genius 
of the West, combined in one noble effort, may solve peace- 
fully and beneficently, for innumerable centuries, the com- 
plicated economic and social problems which now face us, 
to the permanent advantage and enjoyment of all. 



INDEX 



Abdoorahman, Emir, defeat of, ii 
Abe, Professor, 169-171 
Agadir crisis, the, 145 
Agriculture in Japan, 161, 162 
Akbar, Emperor, 203 
Albuquerque the Great, 19 
Alexander of Macedon, 3 
Alexander VI., Pope, 19 
Algiers, Turkish pirates at, 15 
Almeida seizes Goa, 19 
America, and education of Japan- 
ese children, 183 
and Japan, 147 
antagonism against Japanese in, 

148 et seq., 183 
Consulate in Japan, 121 
intervenes in Russo-Japanese 

war, 140 
sends envoy to Japan, 119, 120 
the "yellow peril" in, 175 
Amsterdam, International Social- 
ist Congress at: a dramatic 
incident, 184 
Ancestor worship, 32, 37, 118 
Anglo- Japanese Alliance : Trea- 
ties, 115, 139, 143, 153, 264 
Aoki, Count, 130 

Arab invasion of Europe, 9, 10, 11 
Arrow seized by Chinese, 51 
Aryan Hindoos, legislation 

against, 191 
Asia, border-line of, I 
European invasions of, 3 et seq. 
military influence of, on Europe, 

2 
opium traffic in, 43 et seq. 
Asia Minor, conquest of, 11 
Asiatic emigration, 174 et seq. 
origin of European races, i 
Attila and the Hun invasion, 7 
Australia, the "yellow peril" in, 

175, 180 
Austria, revolution in, 67 



Balkan Provinces, Asiatic inva- 
sion of, 12 

Baroda, Gaikwar of, 209, 230 

Batu, generalship of, 13 

Beaconsfield, Lord, 222 

Bell, Major Evans, 222 

Bengal, troubles in, 231, 232 et seq. 

Bentinck, Lord William, abolishes 
suttee, 222 

Birdwood, Sir George, 252 

Bladovestchenk, barbarities at, 76 

Botelho, 21 

Bowring, Sir John, 51 

Boxer Rising of 1899-1900, 58 et 
seq. 
causes and consequences of, 70, 

72 et seq., 90 
indemnities exacted, 71, 72 

British in India, the, 193 

British Indian finance, unsound- 
ness of, 214 

"Brotherhood of the Four Seas," 
23 

Brown, Miss, on the Japanese, 188 

Bulgars, ancestors of, 8 



Caird, Sir James, 229 

Calicoes, import of, prohibited, 

196 
Calicut, before and after arrival 

of Portuguese, 18 
California, Japanese in, 182, 183 
Capitalism versus Socialism, 168 
Caroline Island, occupation of, 146 
Catholicism in China and Japan, 

Chamberlain, Joseph, 141 

Chan Chih Tung, 79 

Charles Martel defeats the Arabs, 

II 
Chelmsford, Lord, 210, 247 
Children, sale of, in China, 35 



275 



276 



Index 



China, amazing demands from 
Japan, 94, 95 et seq., 150 

at war with Japan, 132, 135 

Christianity established in, 30 

contrasted with Japan, 36 

death sentences in, 34 

disappearance of the queue in, 
86 

education in, 33, yS 

emancipation of woman in, 88 

enters the Great War, 113 

fuel shortage in, 11 1 

government of, 24, 34, 80 

in the past, 23 et seq. 

industrial and trading compe- 
tition in, 54, 152, 180 

influence of Dowager Empress, 
59, 68, 69, 80 

new view of military training 
in, 85 

obstacles to reform in, 79 

opium traffic in, 28, 43 et seq. 

overthrow of the Manchus, 26, 
82,83 

population of, 23, 36, 104 

question of her self-defence, 81 

railway system of, 108 

revolution in, 145 

Russia and, yy 

the Emperor and the Boxers, 64 

why Great Wall was built, 25 
China Town (San Francisco), 177, 

. ^79 . . 
Chinese coolies, kidnapping of, 174 
dislike and distrust of Japanese, 
102, 106, 116, 151, 165 
Chinese Government "legalises" 
opium trade, 51 
labour, et seq. 174 
Ming, dynasty, foundation of, 

26 
Republic, establishment of, 82 
secession of provinces from Re- 
public, 93 
territory annexed, 23 
transport sunk by Japanese, 135 
Chinese, the, a Jesuit tribute to, 
33 
author's reminiscences of, 177 
courtesy of, 88 

their abhorrence of war, 25, 58 
Chirol, Sir Valentine, 91 



Christianity in the Far East, 2, 30 
introduced into Japan, 37 
unsuited to China, 91 

Chun, Prince, 79 

Church, Colonel, a forecast by, 
120, 121 

Clive, Lord, 195 

Coal supply of China, iii 

Competition, post-war, 114, 115 

Confucianism in China, 28, 31, 34, 

58 

Constantinople, Turkish capture 
of, 15 

Cordoba as a model city, 11 

Cornwallis, Lord, 195, 197 

Cotton trade, China as competitor 
in, 114 

Cranbrook, Lord, 222 

Crimean War, 16 

Criminal Investigation Depart- 
ment of India, 2/^-g 

Curzon, Lord, 227 

De Boigne, 193 

Delhi, a conference at, 209 

Diaz, Bartholomew, rounds Cape 

of Good Hope, 17 
Digby, William, 222, 227, 251 

indicts British rule, 216 
Dupleix, 193 
Dutch competition in India, 21 

East India Company, the, 194 

and the opium trade, 45 
Ecuador, Japanese agreements 

with, 147 
Elgin, Lord, and opium trade, 51 
Elliot, Captain, and opium traffic, 

47 
Emigration, Asiatic, 162, 174 et 

seq. 
Engineering, its debt to China, 27 
England and the opium trade, 43 
in alliance with Turkey, 16 
textile industry of, 196 
English, the, in India, 193 
Europe and the partition of China, 
81 _ 
Asiatic invasions of, 2, 3, 7 et 

seq. 
border-line of, i 
races of, Asiatic descent of, i 



Index 



277 



Europeans, massacre of, 122 
Exmouth, Lord, 16 

Factory system in Japan, 166-7 
Far East, the, Christianity in, 2, 30 
Female infanticide, suppression of, 

222 
Ferozeshah, battle of, 199 
Finland, education in, 66 

Socialism in, 168 
Finns settle in Europe, 8 
Formosa, cession of, 145 

Japan and, 23, 107 
France, a Japanese loan issued in, 

143 

acquires Chinese territory, 23 

in alliance with Turkey, 16 

loans to Russia, 224 

Socialism in, 168 

the "White Terror" in, 67 
Franco-Japanese Agreement, 142 
French, the, in India, 193 

Galapagos Islands, Japanese am- 
bitions in, 147 
Gama, Vasco da, atrocities of, 19 
Geddes, James, 222 
George V., King, holds Durbar at 

Delhi, 209 
German intrigues in China, 143 
Social Democrats, 184 
warships sunk, 146 
Germany and American Treaty 
with Japan, 143 
and Boxer Rising, 72 
and neutrality of China, 112 
Asiatic invasion of, 12 
espionage system of, 243 
post-war competition of, 114 
Goa, Portuguese at, 42 
Great Britain, treaties with Japan, 

138, 143, 153, 263 
Great Powers, the, a warning to, 

102, 147, 269, 270 
Great War, the, Chinese labour in, 
190 
its influence on China, 107, 112 
Japan and, 94, 145 
peace terms; a hopeful sign, 113 
Greece, Asiatic invasion of, 12 
Gunpowder, Chinese and, 2, 27 



Hardinge, Lord, attempted assas- 
sination of, 231, 234, 248 

Harte, Bret, 179 

Hastings, Warren, 195 

Hayashi, Count, 138 

Hearn, Lafcadio, 41, 158 

Heraclius, Emperor, routs Per- 
sians, 10 

Hong Kong, cession of, 49 

Houni, Sakya, 203 

Huang-Hsu, Emperor, death of, 
150 
reforms of, 62 et seq., 76 

Hume, A. O., 222 

Hungary, Asiatic invasion of, 12 

Huns invade Europe, 7 

Hunter, Sir William, 207 (note) 

Hwang Hsiu, 93 

Hyndman, Colonel, 193 (note) 

Iddesleigh, Lord, 222, 261 
Inagaki, Shimosu, 169 
India, alleged German propaganda 
in, 243 

awakening of, 230 

conquest of, 194 

economic condition of, 225 

education problem in, 211 

effect of laissez-faire policy on, 
197, 211 

Europeanisation of, 195, 214, 252 

failure of Christian propaganda 
in, 42 

imports and exports, 226, 227 

population of, 204, 226 

poverty of, 214, 251 

self-government demanded by, 
245, 254, 260 

the British in, 193 et seq., 207 

treatment of political offenders 
in, 239 

unrest in, 230 et seq. 
Indian Mutiny, the, 203 
Indians in Great War, 210 
Inouye, Count, 130, 137, 141 
Ireland, Asiatic attack on, 12 
Irrigation in India, 228, 236, 244 
Ishii, Count, Mr. Lansing's Note 

to, 156 (note) 
Issaieff, Professor, 225 
Italy, Asiatic invasion of, 12 

Socialism in, 168 



278 



Index 



Ito, Prince, 125 
lyeyasu, victory of, 40 



Japan acquires German pre-war 
rights, 99 
ambitions regarding China, 94, 

157 
annexes Korea, 23, 144 
as leader of Asia, 140, 141, 147, 

150, 268 
bombardment of, 123 
comparative poverty of, 159 
contrast with China, 36 
demands surrender of Kiau- 

Chau, 146 
education in, 164 
enters Great War, 145 
excludes Europeans, 41 
feudal system abrogated in, 127 
first commercial treaties of, 121 
forbids Christian propaganda in, 

40 
growth of, 117 et seq. 
her demands upon China, 95, 

96 et seq., 150 
imports and exports of, 164 
industrial and social transforma- 
tion of, 160 et seq. 
"peaceful penetration" policy of, 

100, 114, 116 
policy in the Pacific, 146 et seq. 
population of, 159, 164, 165 
present-day army and navy, 159 
religion of, 36, 37 
representative government es- 
tablished in, 127 
secret treaty with Russia, 146 
Socialism in, 168 et seq. 
the "Restoration" in, 124 
throne of, 117 
treaties with Great Britain, 139, 

143, 153, 263 
universal military service in, 128 
war with China, 132, 135, 136 
war with Russia, 78, 139 
wide national policy of, 129 
Japanese attacked in California, 
182-3 
emigration, 182 

low standard of commercial mo- 
rality of, 152 



Jerusalem, Asiatic custody of, 6 
Jesuit propaganda in China and 
Japan, 33 et seq. 

Kagoshima, bombardment of, 123 

Kang Yu Wei, 62 

Karlovitz, Peace of, 16 

Katayama, Sen, 169, 170 
correspondence from, 184 
incident at a Socialist Congress, 

184 
persecution and flight of, 184 

Kato, Baron, 154 

Ketteler, Baron von, murder of, 70 

Khaparde, Mr., 241 

Kiau-Chau, German brutality at, 
76 
Japan and, 146 
seized by Germany, 72 

Kiau-Chau Bay, as a Commercial 
Port, 99 

Knight, Mr., 222 

Korea annexed by Japan, 23, 143 
Japan's preponderance in, 23, 72 
results of Japanese rule in, 107 
struggle for supremacy in, 134 

Kuang-Hi, Emperor, Jesuits and, 
31, 36 

Kublai Khan attempts invasion of 
Japan, 26, 58 

Labour conditions in Japan, 166, 

167 
Lansdowne, Lord, 139, 141 
Lansing, Mr., 156 (note) 
Lea, General Homer, 149 
Lepanto, battle of, 16 
Liaotung Peninsula, Japan and, 23, 

144 
Li Hung Chang, 63 
Lin, Commissioner, appeals to 

Queen Victoria, 48 
Lo Feng Lu, 74 
London, Treaty of, 146 
Lytton, Lord, 215 

Macnaghten, Chester, 223 
Magyars of Hungary, descent of, 

7 
Mallet, Sir Louis, 222 



Index 



279 



Manchuria, Russia and, 23, 72, 138 
Manchus and opium traffic, 43, 46, 

51 
ejection of, ^, 82, 83 
Marco Polo {see Polo) 
Mariner's compass, the, 2, 27 
Marshall Islands, occupation of, 

146, 147 
Martin, Montgomery, 221 
Matsuyama, Mr., 156 
Meerut, mutiny at, 203 
Megata, Baron, 156 
Menu, Code of, 203 
Millis, Professor, 188 
Milyukov, Professor, 225 
Minto, Lord, 247 
Missionaries and opium-smoking, 

53 
Missionary propaganda in China, 

30 et seq., 90 
Miura, General, 137 
Miyake, 169 
Mohammed, his influence and 

death, 9, 10 
Mongolia, Russia and, 23 
Mongols invade Eastern Europe, 

^4 

Montagu, Mr., mission to India, 
246 

Montagu-Chelmsford Report, 247 
resolutions from an Indian Con- 
gress on, 254 

Moors (see Arab) 

Morley, Lord, 231, 237 

Mukden, battle of, 78, 140 

Mutsuhito, Emperor, 125 



Nankin, Treaty of, 49 
Naoroji, Dadabhai, 222, 242, 251 
Nestorian Christians, 30 



Okuma, Count, 130, 150, 153 
"Open Door" in China, 141, 144, 

146 
Opium, China and, 28, 43 et seq. 

suppression of trade in, 55 

traffic "legalized," 51 
Opium Wars, 44, 48, 51 
Osborne, Colonel, 222 
Oude, annexation of, 199 



Pal, Bepin Chandra, 233, 242 

Palmerston, Lord, on opium traf- 
fic, 47, 5® 

Panama Canal, Japan and, 147 

Parkes, Sir Henry, 125 

Peace Conference, the, and Japan- 
ese demands on China, 115 
India demands representation 
at, 260, 261 

Peking, Legations attacked at, 68 
looting and burning of, 70, 76 

Perry, Commodore, 119, 120, 268 

Philippine Islands, Japan and, 147 

Plassey, battle of, 196 

Plechanofif and Dr. Katayama : a 
dramatic incident, 184 

Poles defeat Turks, 16 

Polo, Marco, 31 \ 

Porcelain, China and, 2, 27 

Portsmouth, Treaty of, 79, 140, 
142 

Portuguese arrive at Calicut, 18 
missionaries in Japan, 37 

Printing, Chinese and, 27 

Punjab, the, unrest in, 234 



Race competition and industry, 

^91 . . , 
Race prejudice in America, 183 
Rai, Lajpat, arrest and trial of, 

237 
Ranjitsinhgi in Australia: his 

landing legalised, 181 
Religion, Eastern origin of, 2 
Rice riots in Japan, 173 
Roman invasion of Asia, 4 
Root-Takaliyu Agreement, the, 

143 
Rowntree, Samuel, 46 
Royal Commission on Opium, 53 
Russia annexes Chinese territory, 

23 . . 

Asiatic invasion of, 11 

education in, 211, 212 

French loans to, 225 

leases Liaotung Peninsula, 137 

policy in China, 77 

treaty with China, 78 
Russo-Japanese treaty, 142, 146 
Russo-Japanese war, 78, 139 

intervention of U. S. A., 140 



28o 



Index 



Saghalien, Russia and, 122 
Sakutna, 169 

Salisbury, Lord, 223, 227, 261 
Sandwich Islands, Chinese labour 
in, 174 _ 

Japanese in, 147, 182 
Saracens, the, 11 
Scandinavia, education in, (:^ 
Seoul, Japanese barbarity in, 144 

Japanese Legation attacked, 134 
Shansi, coal supply of, iii 
Shantung and Boxer Rising, 75 

missionaries murdered in, 69 
Shensi, Governor of, 75 
Shibusawa, Baron, 155 
Shimoda, U. S. Consulate at, 121 
Shimonoseki, bombardment of, 
123 

Treaty of, 'j'j, 136 
Shintoism, 37 
Siberia, Japanese in, 102 
Sicily, Asiatic invasion of, 12 
Sleeman, Sir William, 199, 200 
Smeaton, Donald, 229 
Sobieski, John, defeats Turks, 16 
Socialism in Japan, 184 

progress of, 168 et seq. 
Spain, conquest of, li 
Stanhope, Edward, 222 

and Home Rule for India, 261 
Sun Yat Sen advocates a Republi- 
can form of Government, 81 

flight of, 93 

message to U. S. A., 113 

progressive ideals of, 76 

returns to Shanghai, 150 
Suttee abolished in India, 222 
Switzerland, education in, 66 

Tahiti, Chinese labour in, 174 
Takahashi, Baron, 155 
Tantia Topee, 204 
Tariu, Tokichi, 169 
Terauchi, Count, 150, 154 
Thorburn, Mr., 229 



Thugs, suppression of, 199, 222 
Tientsin, Treaty of, 135 
Tilak, Bal Gungunder, arrest and 
imprisonment of, 241 

release of, 260 
Timour the Tartar, 14 
Tours, battle of, 11 
Trade unionism in Japan, 160 
Trajan, Emperor, 39 
Tsing-Tau, capture of, 95, 146 

Germany and, 72 
Tuan Fang protects foreigners, 75 
Turkey, alliance with England and 

France, 16 
Turks, European campaigns of, 15 

United Kingdom, foreign trade 

with China, 114 
United States and Boxer Rising 
indemnities, 72 
and Japan's demands, 100 
Chinese excluded from, 175 
United States joins the Allies, 148 
Ushida, Count, 115 

Vasco da Gama (see Gama) 
Vienna, siege of, 16 

Wei-Hai-Wei seized by England, 

72 
William II., Kaiser, 143 
Woman, emancipation of, in 

China, 86 

Xavier, St. Francis, 20 

"Yellow Peril," the, 175 et seq. 
Yuan-Shi-Kai, 63, 79 
attempts to ascend throne, 93, 

145 
becomes President, 83, 92 
policy in Boxer Rising, 75 
Yung Chang, Emperor, edict 
against opium, 43 



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